It seems Mayor Randy Hawes has been calling anyone who doesn’t want Silverdale turned into a version of Mary Hill in Coquitlam, dribblers.
Have a look at the point where California has come to after decades of rampant and unthinking urban sprawl. The drought has forced a re-think of the environmental costs of building like there is no tomorrow. Do we have to wait until we reach our own tipping point by holding onto the idea that all we need are more subdivisions and we’ll all be happy little taxpayers?
The older I get, the more environmentally-minded I get. That doesn’t mean that some of Silverdale couldn’t be developed but it does mean that, when push comes to shove, I will back only those projects which put the needs of the environment first – with abundant green spaces – and the bottom lines of developers a distant second.
That doesn’t sit well with developer-friendly people at city hall which, of course, I don’t give a toss about as developers are not the be-all and end-all of what direction Mission should be going.
We have a chance now to avoid the never-ending development of subdivisions and expansion that has now become the proverbial chicken that has come home to roost in California.
Build up and not out is the only way to stop unrelenting urban sprawl which is ultimately good for neither man nor beast.
Hawes doesn’t realize that his time has come and gone. It’s up to all us “dribblers” to take a stand and say no. Just because land is vacant doesn’t mean that it has to be built on, as there are things more important than the bottom line of developers such as a social and environmental conscience. And lest we forget, that includes the proposed development here in Hatzic.
Robert T. Rock
Mission
