By now, most Maple Ridge voters, even those who voted for the anti-Corisa Bell slate of council members, must be curious about what in heavens (or hell) is going on at municipal hall.
Is Coun. Bell just a malcontent or is she doing what every elected member of council should be doing – asking questions and persistently trying to understand the budget and planning processes?
For the record, I ran unsuccessfully in the last municipal election and I didn’t vote for Coun. Bell, but I readily admit she is intelligent, has great organizational skills and political will.
All of this doesn’t mean she should be shunned and ostracized or disrespected by other members of council, or staff.
Bell has questioned the five-year capital plan, in particular, the $6 million No. 4 fire hall expected to be built to serve the needs of Albion and the surrounding area.
The fire hall has been on every five-year capital plan for a long time, and was even proposed as far back as the mid-1980s. The location has varied somewhat over the years, as has the estimated cost.
What now makes the topic a little more meaningful is the current proposal to extend urban development in Albion and the discussion of permitting secondary suites in the area.
If council members and planning staff intend to continue to pursue single-family urban sprawl as the backbone of Maple Ridge’s residential development policies, municipal council needs even more Coun. Bells and fewer development-oriented, conflicted councillors.
The proposed Albion area urban expansion not only serves to further justify the $6 million fire hall, but also adds to council’s self-serving plans to turn the Albion Flats into a sprawling gigantic parking lot and commercial eyesore.
Maple Ridge council’s decade-long fuddle duddling with the agricultural land commission over the fate of the Albion flats has been expensive for all taxpayers in Maple Ridge and has resulted in nothing having been accomplished.
Continuing its annoying habit of tilting at windmills, council has now supported an application to remove the privately owned western half of the Albion flats from the agricultural land reserve, despite consistent rulings from the provincial agricultural land commission that such an application will not be approved.
The commission has also indicated that the eastern portion of the flats, much of it owned by the municipality, will also remain in the reserve until drainage issues affecting the western portion have been resolved.
According to some knowledgeable folks, cost estimates of properly addressing drainage issues in the area could run into several million dollars, the bulk of which will likely be loaded onto municipal taxpayers.
Council has also entertained discussions with a shopping centre development company to swap the property the development company owns in the western portion of the flats for the municipally-owned fairgrounds in the eastern portion.
The development company would then build the shopping centre Maple Ridge council has lusted after for many years.
This, of course, would involve rezoning, but once the land is removed from the agricultural land reserve, council will control that process.
The whole proposal and council’s suggested intentions smell an awful lot like selling zoning, something that is supposed to be prohibited. But I don’t think that will slow down Mayor Ernie Daykin and his disciples.
They have a vision, albeit a myopic one.
Sandy Macdougall is a retired journalist and former district councillor.
