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 - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman