Housing and Education
Sandor Gyarmati has written an informative article in the November 7 Delta Optimist in which he highlights some of the complexities of housing and education and how we are challenged in South Delta to come up with an appropriate equation to meet the needs of the community as we grow.Thoughtful Street Design
Comments
December 12 South Delta Leader Article
South Delta Leader writer Kristine Thiessen speaks with Kwantlen Polytechnics' Kent Mullinix regarding the idea for developing an education centre as part of the greater Southlands Development. The article is published in the December 12 edition of the South Delta Leader.
Optimist
I read the Optimist article and found it thought provoking. There was also a letter to the editor in this edition that was interesting but confusing at the same time. I am a fan of open space and I think we need more oof it. I also think that we have to carefully manage our food resources and keep farmland where it makes sense. Having said all of that, I believe that landowners should try to do whatever they want with their land. The aothor of the letter to the editor said that the southlands owner should just put the land back in rto the ALR. Why would he do that? Out of the goodness of his heart? That is like picking any several block radius in tsawwassen and asking the residents to hand over their land titles so that the house can be bulldozed for parkland or a farm or something. How ridiculous is that? there has to be some give and take on this one.
The land was zoned
The land was zoned agricultural when purchased. After an extensive re-zoning proccess, it was decided that the land should remain zoned agricultural. The landowners can indeed try to do whatever they want with their land but the people of Delta and the mayor and council are under no obligation to re-zone the property. And the only bulldozer in this scenario is the one that clears good farmland and leaves asphalt in its wake.
zoning
Politicians generally try to listen to their constituents. They are not obliged to do anything except attempt to look after their communities and gage public opinion. When the time comes and an application for development is presented for the Southlands, we will see how the public responds to it. Hopefully the development proposal is one that serves the best collective interests of the community.
ALR
I read the Optimist article regarding returning the land to ALR. This is an uninformed and dismissible notion that would not be suggested by someone who actually wants to preserve farmland permanently. But first, to think that someone has paid for the property, paid property taxes for, what, 20 years on 538 acres and now they'll just hand it over to the community, in entirety for nothing doesn't make sense. Perhaps we should all give our properties away to the farmers too. Are there actually people in this community that would propose that the owner give all of his land away?
More importantly, why would anyone who cares about the future of our community want to return land to ALR? We have seen exactly how the government manages ALR. Handing it to the government would be handing it to the political whims of the moment. At any time, it could be removed, and developed.
Instead, a large part of the land will be given to the community as a permanent trust. It can never be taken out of the trust, and it will always be there for the community's use.
Forget about returning it to ALR. Creating farmland within a land trust brings concrete, immediate, and longterm benefits to our community. We can relocalize our food and for some people, work, and we reduce our impact on the environment while ensuring that as our access to fossil fuels continues to decline we have a food source locally. Let's be realistic about what is happening globally, and do something about it to ensure we sustain ourselves locally.
The ALC never wanted the
The ALC never wanted the land out of the reserve. The political whims of the moment, as the above writer puts it, are what got the land removed from the ALR in the first place. And the owner is not being asked to give the land away. It is already zoned agricultural. Including it in the ALR would just mean that the public wouldn't have to deal with redevelopment schemes every ten or fifteen years. Then the business of farming the land in earnest could begin. The way it sits now, the land is worth more to the owner if he is able to make people think it is useless. As for "relocalizing" our food, Delta has one of the highest agricultural yields in Canada. There's no reason the Southlands can't be a part of that.
Previous Commentator
The previous commentator makes a good comment here when he says that "There has to be give and take on this one."
Coming up with a compromise for effective use of this land is challenging.
Mike Schneider
Southlands Planning Team
Support Staff