Re: Kingma plan keeps going, July 6, 2012
The editor picked up on some of the irregularities at Monday’s public hearing.
You shouldn’t use the term “resource” to describe the land’s long-term use in the OCP.
“Resource” is only the broad designation covering about 500 acres of woodland. Specific parcels, such as this one, have tighter definitions and objectives. It has been identified as future public parkland in the OCP for about 50 years, it has been given a name ( Miami Slough Woodlands) and it is top of the list for new park creation.
It is also misleading to claim that Harrison needs more townhouses. If we do, there is about 40 acres of suitable land (800 units?) which needs to be in-filled before sprawl is allowed into the woodlands. Kingma should use that first.
Affordable housing is always present, particularly in South Harrison. Sacrificing an important future park for housing might work if the community was providing subsidised housing.
This scheme will provide no such thing. It a maximum-profit project for Kingma with about an extra $2,600,000 donated to him by council through simply rezoning the land. This also cheats other investors and landowners out of their land value by allowing Kingma to buy cheap, unusable land at $3,000 per acre instead of existing housing land which is properly zoned and serviced. He should be paying either fair market value for land or paying Harrison Village the full value of his rezoning, ie. $2,600,000 for the increase in land value which he is receiving.
John Allen
