Editor, The News:
Re: Former Pelton land pitched again (The News, June 8).
I think Mayor Nicole Read and Coun. Bob Masse need to consider much better proposals than turning agricultural land into warehouses to create employment.
A multi-storey office tower in the downtown center and encouragement of home-based businesses would be a lot better use of land and create better paying jobs, as well.
The former Pelton lands would be ideal for something akin to a Hopcott Meats or Golden Ears Cheesecrafters type facility, with the surrounding lands used to supply whatever a store could sell.
The location has ideal access to commuters.
A good way to clean up the land would be to divide it into many parcels, leased to people who want to grow things that could be sold in the store, perhaps as a co-op type arrangement.
Individuals working their piece of land would screen the soil and clean it of debris and make other improvements, as already happens in community gardens.
Michael Patterson
Maple Ridge
Extend connector
Editor, The News
Re: Former Pelton land pitched again (The News, June 8).
I found Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read’s recent comments regarding removal of the former Pelton property from the ALR very disappointing.
I would have thought she had a better understanding of the urgent need to protect our food supply in the face of the disaster that our planet is experiencing as a result of climate change.
I wonder if the mayor is aware of the previous attempt by the Pelton’s to remove the land from the ALR.
The application was soundly rebuked by the Agricultural Land Commission.
The ALC asked the applicant what they thought would happen to the agricultural lands around their property if the ALC allowed their land to be removed from the ALR?
The ALC responded that what would happen would be that applications from neighbouring agricultural land owners would flood in to the ALC, putting more pressure for agricultural removal and subsequent loss of agricultural capability.
Maple Ridge has industrial property on 256 Street that is not being fully utilized.
The weak excuse is that it’s “too far away.”
The Abernethy Connector will be extended to 256 Street sooner or later.
Better to do it now so we can fully utilize the industrial property there.
We also have a large industrial area next to the Golden Ears Bridge that was abandoned by TransLink, but has a huge amount of fill already on it. Furthermore, we will be developing Albion.
Sacrificing our agricultural land to development is an old idea that is completely out of step with the needs of the 21st Century.
We have to respond to climate change and population growth in an intelligent manner.
We need to challenge the assumption that endless growth is necessary and inevitable.
We tell ourselves that we are an intelligent species. Let’s show some evidence that that is actually the case.
Endless growth will inevitably hasten the steep downward slide that our planet is on. The reality of devastating climate change is tangible proof of that reality.
We need to find real solutions for the problems we face. Making the same mistakes over and over again is not intelligent.
Michael Sather
Maple Ridge
