Editor:
Re: Tunnel was big change, Murphy’s Law, Jan. 3
I entirely agree with your editorial. Suppose, however, there had been some absolute ban on Tsawwassen housing development. The only properties available for purchase would have been those vacated by people moving away or dying and Tsawwassen would have remained an idyllic, somewhat impractical place to live, like Bowen Island today.
There was no such ban; development did go in; Tsawwassen – for better or worse – is what it is here and now.
This in no way invalidates the idea there is a limit to responsible development, which may have been reached or exceeded. Hidden in an appendix to the traffic study that was done for the Southlands development are the words: “Volume exceeds capacity. Queue length theoretically infinite” applied to several intersections along 56th Street, indicating a dysfunctional traffic system caused in part by the Southlands development.
The study does not take construction traffic into account, makes no allowance for the long-term increase in motor vehicles per head of population and does not even envision the redevelopment of Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall. The question has to be asked: Is further development in the best interests of the community?
Increasingly, the answer is: No. What’s getting people riled up is not some vague nostalgia, but the perception that the interests of developers come first with Delta council, the interests of the community a bad last.
Council rammed the Southlands development through against vehement public opposition; the casino hearing was a farce; it remains to be seen what happens with the Town Centre Mall.
Tom Morrison
