Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Elaine O'Connor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

GROW HOMES NOT GOOD NEIGHBOURS

Grow-Op-Free Areas Impossible To Find

Realtor and developer Bill Coughlin was tired of horror stories from 
clients who found drug farms surrounding their suburban homes.

The last straw was a client who bought into a nice neighbourhood only 
to discover the home directly behind him was a grow-op.

"He was devastated," Coughlin recalls.

"Then beside him became a grow-op, across the road was a grow-op, 
around the corner was a grow-op. He said, 'Bill, get me out of here.' 
And I said, 'There's nowhere in Canada I can put you [and guarantee] 
no grow-ops.'"

His client's not alone. A 2004 Fraser Valley Development Institute 
survey of 104 Valley families found 70 per cent felt personally 
affected by grow-ops. At least a dozen have been busted near 
Coughlin's own Mission-area home.

So he tried to create a grow-op-free community. In 2004 he began 
developing a gated subdivision on Chilliwack's Valleyview Road where 
buyers had to sign a contract stating they'd forfeit their home if 
they harboured grow-ops.

But some realtors balked and buyers got cold feet. The developer 
needed financing to go forward, so Coughlin had to make concessions 
and the contract was dropped.

Some provisions remain: The gated community has easily visible hydro 
meters, sewer pipes at the front of properties so the strata can 
check for chemical effluent, a ban on foiled windows, security camera 
hook-ups at the gate and in a private park behind the homes.

Coughlin laments the fact that individual interests trumped the 
creation of a truly drug-home-free neighbourhood, but he plans to try 
again in Abbotsford and Mission with more secure backing to allow him 
to hold out on the contract.

"The Canadian way is we have no care as to what goes on next door," 
he says."To me, that is destructive of community."

- - - -

Best For B.C. Bud

Top 10 B.C. jurisdictions with the highest volume of 
marijuana-cultivation police files opened in 2003:

1. Surrey: 441 cases

2. Vancouver: 335

3. Coquitlam: 297

4. Kelowna: 260

5. Burnaby: 218

6. Chilliwack: 204

7. Prince George: 189

8. Richmond: 180

9. Langley: 170

10. Ridge Meadows: 152

Source: University College of the Fraser Valley study, Marihuana 
Operations in British Columbia Revisited
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman