Editor: Re: Minor Update to Brookswood-Fernridge OCP and the Brookswood-Fernridge Community Planning Team.
Sadly, it comes of no surprise to most of us that the composition of the recently formed public input group — chosen behind closed doors — includes only three members of the Leave Brookswood Alone Facebook and community group.
This group spearheaded local opposition to the then-new OCP, and forced council in March 2014 to not approve that proposed OCP, as it was obviously laden with unwanted high density.
Many prominent members of LBA remain adamant on the importance of environmental and other values as essential to planning a healthy community.
Why would a new community planning team consisting of 14 other people that chose not to be a part of that group (or weren’t allowed into that group by administrators) be picked?
In January 2016, council opted to start a process for a “minor update,” to be based in large part on previously collected, developer-skewed input, and consisting of what is widely believed by many of us to be faulty information gathered by the very vultures that paid for the whole process.
Now council has resurrected this work, and is going to add to it input from these 17 people selected behind closed doors.
This infuriates many of my neighbours and me.
Further, and despite other protests, council decided to pick people that don’t even live in the area in question.
Why would people who do not live in our community be given voices on the future health and viability of our community?
Why on Earth should there be a member that “represents the development and/or building industry?”
Why not a planner? A wildlife biologist? An arborist or forester?
Council clearly wanted people who own businesses in the area to be a part of this.
Of course, the majority of us thought it would be store fronts like a mom and pop restaurant or a small clothing store that is open to the public and or employs perhaps some of the local people’s children in the area.
We didn’t know they meant people who have a personal office in their home.
I live in the community, am a part owner in a local business that employs people from this area, and we are open to the public.
I helped steer the Leave Brookswood Alone committee to what we believed was a victory over the defeated OCP of 2014.
I applied for a position on this planning team to help be a voice again for this community.
Did I get to be on Jack’s planning team? No.
And why you ask?
Because I care about the people I have to live with. I care about the customers we serve. I care about the environment, and the wildlife that surrounds this uncrowded beautiful place we in the Brookswood-Fernridge area call home.
Let the developers drive nice Toyotas, not Bentleys.
Scott Thompson,
Brookswood
