Editor,
My family, the Greens, moved to Ladner on the advice of the pioneering Ladners in the 1860s.
Their farm is still thriving, partly because of the ALR and partly because of our growing appreciation of reliable, local food sources. Today, such ideals are under threat by rapacious developers who will say and do just about anything for their own economic benefit.
Call it what you will: eco-farming, urban farming, it adds up to the same thing, unimaginable dependence on foreign food producers, unhealthy traffic snarls, and a diminished quality of life for those who for over a hundred years have sought out Delta as an alternative to city living.
Under Mayor Lois Jackson, Delta has taken a steady, sober approach to the pressures brought to bear on the ALR.
Sometimes it seems she is playing "Whack-A-Mole" at the PNE in her admirable defense of Delta's irreplaceable land. Delta is grateful.
And new families looking for reasonably priced homes are also grateful for the careful densification of Ladner, something which might guide Tsawwassen's development, too.
But I worry that Southlands' latest assault, veiled as ecological, has seduced her and the council with its subtle and prolonged wooing.
Please, don't capitulate now. Be patient. Stare the bullies down.
Until Delta knows the impact of TFN and the as yet unmasked robbers who are buying adjacent land for industrial development, it strikes me as rash to approve anything.
If you drive to Westham Island for strawberries in the next few weeks, remember this: most citizens will pay slightly higher taxes to live among such Edenic splendor.
Drew Meikle
