Richmond horse stable owner in heated feud with neighbour

Richmond, B.C. -

A dispute in Richmond between a horse stable and its neighbour is getting ugly. The owner of Blue Meadow Farm claims his neighbour is breaking several bylaws, and in doing so, causing major issues for his horses and riders.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” said David Kao, whose family owns Blue Meadow Farm.

“They started bringing in dump trucks and machinery.”

Kao says his property used to be a quiet place to ride, give lessons and board horses. That changed, he says, when new neighbours moved in last August.

“When we have children riding, we have to completely stop our riding lesson in order for them to finish dumping,” said Janice Foley, manager of the horse stable.

Foley says the frequent sound of trucks dumping large supplies of wood startles the horses, creating an unsafe environment for the riders.

“One of these days, those people are going to dump and going to cause trouble for the wrong horse and the wrong rider,” said Foley.

The owner of the adjacent property, Daniel Cheung, also owns Canwest Marine Services, which advertises services including storage and distribution solutions. Blue Meadow Farm has put in formal complaints about the neighbour for violating several city bylaws, including ones regarding noise, unsightly premises and using agricultural land for industrial purposes.

“Obviously, we want to figure out, remedy the situation just between neighbours if possible,” said Kao. “But the guy told me to lawyer up. He told me the fines are just petty change to him.”

Kao says one altercation between a worker on the neighbouring property and a horse trainer resulted in him calling the police.

CTV News reached out to Cheung, who said he doesn’t believe he’s doing anything wrong and won’t be making any changes unless he’s forced to by the City of Richmond.

CTV News has learned that Cheung received multiple fines late last year for contravening the unsightly premises bylaw.

“We are aware," said Clay Adams, director of communications for the City of Richmond.

"We have an active file on this location.”

Adams wouldn’t divulge specifics on the case, but says certain situations could result in more severe punishments.

“If you’re in contravention of a zoning requirement of some kind, we’ll then get into much bigger issues, which often involve much larger amounts of money, potentially legal action and so on,” said Adams.

Meanwhile, Foley and Kao say they’ll ride out the feud as long as it takes.

“We are fighting all the way,” said Foley.