"At today's area plan meeting on agriculture, I was handed a green sheet of paper
with the heading, "Save our Tsawwassen," that was signed off as written by Mr.
John Meech. It starts off by accusing those who oppose development on the Southlands
as being "hostage" takers and says that they are a vocal minority. Can you back
those statements up Mr. Meech?
Actually I agree with your desire to avoid confrontation and attacking words on others with different opinions. I thought long and hard about giving my personal opinions about the NOers in our community, and in the end, decided to put some of my feelings in the document because of the horrendous untruths being spread in an organized campaign against this plan by unknown and unidentified people. Personal attacks on Sean Hodgins were also a reason to lash out. He is too much of a gentleman to do that so I put on the gloves and I tried to do it in as gentle a way as possible.
I could have added such statements as:
Why is Tsawwassen known as "Little Rhodesia"?
Why do we have such a lack of diversity in our community?
I took a friend to the event on Saturday and after it was over I asked her what she thought. Her very first reaction was "What a white-faced crowd with lots of white hair or balding heads."
We are a community that is "dying on the vine". Our demographics are ever-increasing with a lack of young families able to afford to live here. Many of our children cannot afford to live in Tsawwassen unless they inherit our homes. We have no post-secondary education anywhere in Delta - the only community of 100,000 in this situation. We fear any form of growth or increase in population. We fear a different "class of people" moving in. we continually focus on the negatives and fail to embrace the good in new ideas. When people say "We don't want Tsawwassen to become like Richmond" ask yourself if this is really "code-words" for racism.
We said NO to the SFPR (I agreed with that). We said NO to Port Expansion. We said NO to hospital cuts (I agreed with that as well). We said NO to putting the power lines underground and then when it became apparent that they were goiing to be put above ground, we backed off and said OKm put them underground. We are not a community of citizens - we use Tsawwassen as a place to sleep and eat in our interlude from work in Richmond or Vancouver. Oh yes, we do like to walk the beaches and dikes, but we rarely get together as fellow citizens to share in each other's ideas - except when it is to "protect our town" or say NO to new ideas. When did anythuing innTsawwassen get a YES from its citizens?
In looking back to the TDL proposal in 1989, it was probably a good idea that it was rejected. The concept of that development was ridiculous - unsustainable growth around a large-scale golf-course of the entire site. But what we should have followed up with then was a properly well thought-out community plan for what could be done with the land. Instead we went back to our commuting life-style and did nothing to attempt to change our community for the better. We have stagnated over the past two decades in a way that guarantees our failure as a community and the continued dumping of projects and other changes from external forces.
There are numerous gaps:
1. affordable housing
2. unsustainable agriculture
3. an aging community
4. traffic problems
5. lack of post-secondary education
6. one major town centre that doesn't serve our daily needs or provide real shopping support.
7. very poor cultural activities and insufficient sports facilities
8. growing criminal behaviour because our children can't work here or play here.
" The rest of the leaflet (in my opinion) also does nothing but spout off
the same old rhetoric without any substance to it. Please give us something
to sink our teeth into Mr. Meech. Give us some facts that will convince us
that growing houses on excellent farmland is a good idea."
In a two-page flyer it is extremely difficult to give you the "facts" that you appartently want to see. All of those facts are carefully detailed in many of the brochures and reports that came out of the Southlands Community Planning Team's work. It is freely available on-line at
www.southlandsintransition.ca. But it is not "old rhetoric", Mr. Biedermann. It is the consensus of new ideas generated by 24 of your fellow citizens who worked on your behalf as volunteers to do the work that our town should have been doing over the past two decades. The plan presents a novel approach to retaining and sustaining farming on the Southlands. The farming will become productive and will enhance our community in ways that we can't even yet conceive. People interested in food security will be attracted to our town. People wanting to work locally and live here too will be attracted. We will have a post-secondary institution in place that for the first time will help to address why we have so few young farmers. You want a quiet rural community - that is what the plan will create! You want a place where you can walk and bike to run your errands - that is what the plan will create! You want a place where you can interact with your neighbours on a daily basis (even if its just to say Hello), that is what the plan will create! Now you call this site "Friends & Lovers - Self Help" so maybe that will be a little more intimacy than your neighbours desire, but even your site can benefit from the plan being proposed.
"Fact: We currently have approved developments on the go to provide
those housing requirements you stated that we need."
Both approved developments - Toigo's and the one in Point Roberts are associated with golf courses. Where is the Agriculture support. Toigo's development involved an ALR swap that reduced farmland. The Southlands development will enhance farming to a level never before seen even on the best quality farmland in the Lower Mainland.
"Fact: By the time the Southlands gets developed, the demographics
may well have changed and all those homes may no longer be required."
Are you just being silly with this one or did you not listen to the presentation of Aging Populations. The only way we can reduce the trend in an Aging Population is to encourage young families to return to our community.
"Fact: You stated that a 537-acre farm is too small in today's economy.
Making it even smaller will help? Do tell how. Both the speakers
(Kristi Tatebe and Wendy Holm) at today's meeting told us that
it is the speculators that are a major cause of the farmer's woes.
It is this constant pressure to develop farmland that is causing
the land values to rise and make farming difficult as a result."
Sean Hodgins is not a speculator. He lives on the Southlands. He farms the Southlands. Did you read the full proposal? - I think not. The difficulties in farming sustainably are far more complex than land speculation. The overall economy and the demand for food and the marketing of food all play a role. Factory Farming has been the only way for existing farmers to survive. We have lost 10,000 acres from the southern part of our province and added 10,000 in the north. We have gone from high-quality food to factory production of cattle, hogs, fowl, and grains, We now grow food for fuel - ethanol - what a totally unsustainable concept.
Yes, the farmland will be smaller. Yes the farmland will be enhanced through liming, fertilizing, and better irrigation. Its productivity will increase by between 2 to 4 times in terms of dollar value. Organic, high-quality foodstuffs rather than hardy potatoes and fodder corn will be grown and people in our community can eat locally-grown food with a new Farmer's Market that will support other farms in the region.
"Fact: If we had stricter adherence to keeping farmland in the ALR the farmers
would stand a better chance of making a living, with the consequence of
improving our availability of food to sustain us."
Ask yourself who moved the high-quality farmland out of the ALR. You will find it has been government - not private business. In fact, the net flow of land into and out of the ALR is significantly IN with respect to private business. The Southlands Community Plan provides a way for our community to acquire the 225 acres to be left for farming and see that it is farmed in-perpetuity protected by we the citizens of Tsawwassen. Can we trust government to provide this protection - NOT ON YOUR LIFE!
"You mentioned that crime and drugs are a result of funding cuts to the arts."
This is a mis-statement of my position. What I said was that improved cultural activities and improved sporting facilities for our youth will help to prevent crime from being generated within the community. They provide outlets for our youth to avoid becoming involved in gangs and drug activities which, if you hadn't noticed are already on the rise in our town.
"You go on to speak about our carbon footprint and state that by your
estimate, there will be about 20% of the new residents of the Southlands
commuting to work. That would be an additional carbon footprint of more
than 20% of our current footprint due to the higher density of the
development. Increasing our carbon footprint is a good thing?"
C'mon, Paul - the issue is not total carbon emissions but emissions per capita. In fact we may find that per capita, the new development will generate so much less CO2 that our total emissions may actually decline despite the increase in population. Members of the existing community will start to ride bikes and walk more to run their errands.
"Then you go on to tell about how this proposed development will mitigate
an already problematic traffic condition. Would it not make more sense to
simply not add to the traffic rather than attempt to create mitigating
features?"
So exactly what are you saying here - you don't want to mitigate existing traffic problems?
The mitigation occurs in two ways - people in the existing community will drive less and walk and bike more; and people in the new development will to a lesser extent not be commuting through the tunnel. Those sound like good things to me - and they can't come about without the development.
"You speak of how the development will implement state-of-the-art
on-site infrastructure, but what of the cost to the taxpayer for
the off-site infrastructure upgrades that will be needed to support
all those new residents?"
Any costs for new sewage treatment, water supply, and other infrastructure support will be cost-recovered from the new residents. I don't see how these costs will be transferred to the existing community and in some cases, economy of scale can occur to ensure upgrading and retrofitting of future facilities will actually be cheaper for the existing community.
"Your comments about businesses closing in the Town Centre if we don't plan
for growth is insulting. Everyone knows that we are currently in a recession
and that businesses are failing all over the world!
The closure of the bowling alley, the Theatre, and the high-class restaurants occurred well before the current recession. Businesses are closing and new ones not opening up simply because there is a declining trend in demand with no upside as our community stagnates. We can address the problem in two ways - by allowing some modest growth - 80 units every year for 25 years or by attracting tourists who come to visit because of something we have to offer - accessible beaches, excellent walking and bike trails, unique restaurant and boutiques, and a new arts centre.
"Fact: There was nothing but farmland around Disneyland in California
before the Magic Kingdom was built. The business attracted the
people; the people do not necessarily attract the business. Set
up shop in the busiest place and offer junk at a high price. See
how many customers you get and how long your business lasts!
Businesses need to earn their living. There is no automatic RIGHT
to it. offer something special and see how people come from afar
to shop there. Case in point: People came from Vancouver to shop
at Thriftys when it first opened!"
Well, I don't disagree in principle with your comments above. Disneyland was created by a man with vision who built it and the people came and came and came and eventually the farms were squeezed out by all the supporting businesses that sprung up. But to compare the development being proposed here to Disneyland is a real stretch. I think we will attract folks from afar to come down and share in our space and commerce but never to the extent of what Walt Disney created.
"Then you close with more rude remarks about the naysayers'
"incredible level of ignorance" and "selfishness". Comments
such as that are inappropriate and don't help to sway any
indecision one might have. My own observation is that those
very same people you call ignorant are in fact more aware
and informed than most. As for selfishness; what is selfish
about looking out for the sustainability of our ecosystem
and the welfare of those who will follow us? Why is it so
important to you to see this development go ahead, Mr. Meech?
If you could provide some real reasons for supporting your
views rather than attacking people, you might have better
success at convincing them to see it your way. Your flyer
supports saying "NO" to development on the Southlands for
all the reasons above. I'm sure the naysayers thank you for
covering all the bases!"
Calling Sean Hodgins a greedy developer is equally rude. Sometimes rudeness must be met with rudeness. I consider the statements attacking Sean and the 24 citizens who helped him formulate this plan and the lies and misconceptions being spread to be ignorant and selfish in their own right. Why did people refuse to even read my flyer? Some called me an idiot without even reading the flyer as they crumpled it up and threw in my face. Despite being polite and stating that the flyer was my own personal opinion paid for by myself, one lady told me she wouldn't use my flyer for "toilet-paper". When people close their minds and refuse to even discuss, we have entered a realm far beyond rudeness. When people yell at volunteer speakers and try to take over a well-run event such as occurred on Saturday, once again this is well-beyond simply being rude. My target group was not the small-minded naysayers who have closed their minds to any type of sensible planning for the Southlands. The group who will understand what my flyer was about are the new people - the younger people - who see that their future hinges on a development such as this one. I hope there is enough of us this time and they will stand up and be counted.
