Editor:
Re: Debate poised to resume, Sept. 21
Will the debate over Southlands ever end? I fail to understand why, when it comes to the Southlands, our current council seems to ignore the word "no."
To refresh people's memories, over 60 per cent of residents who responded to the June 2010 Ipsos Reid survey wrote they wished to have no housing development on the property known as Southlands.
Earlier in the Tsawwassen Area Plan process a majority of the residents who responded to an online survey also had indicated they did not wish to see housing on the Southlands, but somehow the input on this survey got "skewed" at municipal hall, if my memory serves me correctly.
Furthermore many residents indicated support to the proposal put forth by Delta to have the land returned to the ALR. This application was abandoned before everyone who wished to got a chance to speak.
In another article in the Sept. 21 issue residents learn Century Group has put forward a plan to redevelop the Southpointe school site on 56th Street with, among other things, a six-storey building - a site shown in the newly adopted Tsawwassen Area Plan as being limited to three storeys.
Should this even be considered in view of the fact the majority of residents said they did not support six storey structures anywhere in Tsawwassen.
But, of course, we must not forget (as learned at council meeting on Sept. 12) the day after an area plan is adopted it can be changed. Why bother to spend money and so much time on development of an area plan in the first place? What did the Tsawwassen Area Plan cost Delta taxpayers? Is the plan ever followed?
I would like to know before I cast my ballot in the November election where each candidate stands on Southlands and on the subject of allowing large-scale housing development on agricultural land in general.
Jean Wightman
