Editor: It won't be another record-setting Spetifore (Southlands)-style public hearing. Speakers then had no time limit, and signed up to speak again. The objective seemed not informed decision, but unconditional surrender.
Council had no ability to end the hearing. One evening when the list was short, council extended the hearing anticipating the end. Urgent calls went out. People abandoned beds, signed up, spoke, and spoke some more. With a fiveminute time limit, we can do better than that.
If Century Group were to locate its innovative development somewhere above the flood plain, near a Highway 17 access, and on non-agricultural land, wouldn't we applaud it? The development itself seems desirable. The question is whether issues arising from its location so detract from that desirability that it should be rejected. Location issues are pivotal and thus demand thoughtful, informed debate in the public hearing.
Could Tsawwassen's streets and traffic, during some limited periods of time, reasonably accommodate 60,000 truckloads of fill needed to prepare the site? Would designs be compromised to minimize the fill needed? For example, would elderly homeowners need to scale high stairs to access elevated homes from at-grade parking?
Would shopping and commuter traffic from 950 additional homes be manageable on Tsawwassen's streets? Would development really reduce the Southlands' agricultural capability? Given $9 million of irrigation, drainage and other agricultural improvements funded by development, could the remaining farmland actually out-produce the present farm? Whatever the conclusions and decision may be, I hope they flow from informed, fact-based debate and thoughtful judgment, not from yet another contentious battle to outnumber and out speak the other guys. Tsawwassen deserves better than that.
Ed Ries
