Editor:
Re: Heat turned up on proposal, July 18
I attended the meeting on the Ladner condo proposal and felt a little perturbed at some aspects of it.
Firstly, I agree with many that such a large change to the Official Community Plan should not be presented to the community during summer when citizens are likely to be away.
Secondly, it worried me to hear the architect on the proposal call the community plan a "living document," words most of us have heard from the mayor many times during public hearings. Does this indicate a culture at municipal hall that encourages developers to propose large deviations from the plan?
Staff in attendance, when asked when the community plan was completed, were, I felt, quite vague in answering sometime in the '90s. It fell to an audience member who had participated in that process to inform us that it had been a lengthy and expensive process and was completed in 1997.
Later, when asked if it had been revisited, this gentleman again informed us it that the plan had been revisited four or five years ago and at that time, the community reiterated its support for the plan.
Surely it is staff 's job to give that information at the outset rather than leave it to the proponent to suggest changes are commonplace and desirable.
I return to the question: Does this signify a culture at municipal hall? If so, it needs to change, one way or another.
Wilma Haig
