As the controversy, arguments and tempers continue to rise over the proposed development in the Juan de Fuca Rural Resource Lands, people are forgetting about the farmable lands which are being swallowed up by subdivisions and encased in concrete.
Common sense appears to have flown out the window when it comes to undeveloped property. On one hand you have a relatively small development on 236 hectares surrounded by over 131,000 hectares of forest lands and a provincial park. On the other hand you have many small properties surrounded by thousands of hectares of development.
Now wouldn’t you think the “activists” would be rallying their forces to protect those small bastions of agricultural land? Land that can still be used to feed people. Land that supplies some green space in the forest of concrete and steel. Densification really is an ugly word. It brings forth images of concrete jungles, houses crammed one up against another, and tiny, tiny oases of parched lawns where children can play. That is urban sprawl, that is what we shouldn’t want.
If all of the energy that has been spent on opposing the Marine Trail Holdings development was expended on saving our precious, useable agricultural land then we would be accomplishing something more worth while.
Even there, one has to use a little common sense and save those lands which can be used for agriculture and farming, not just any old chunk of land without buildings on it. Reason should prevail and we should be taking stock of what we still have as far as our land “bank” goes. You won’t grow much of a garden in the Juan de Fuca lands, but you can grow a lot in areas such as Saanich, North Saanich, and further up Island. As the placards protest the JDF development, attention is being diverted away from what is really happening to our land.
Put that youthful energy and idealism into fighting for farm land. Recreational land will remain recreational if we save it for that. Farm land is what is being squandered and sold to development. What is your priority? Food or forest?
