It's unfortunate that the city spent tax-payer's hard-earned money on creating a new Official Community Plan in 2011, when the majority of council members refuse to adhere to its policies and objectives.
At Monday's council meeting, mayor and council approved a re-designation to include smaller lots on McGuire Road. This was a complete disregard to any vision expressed in the current OCP. In the second paragraph of the OCP, the purpose of the document is to be "a critical planning tool... to help make decisions." The current OCP continually references "rural living" and limiting sprawl development. It talks about encouraging growth in downtown areas, not rural communities located at city limits.
Council was presented with logical reasons to oppose the amendment (aquifer strain, storm runoff, deforestation), and their response was that they were not responsible for validating an increase in the number of parcels in an area. Then who is responsible? Will the families of our community have to deal with the long term impacts of increased development, when such changes could have been prevented by a more conscientious council?
Our current council is making their own decisions, disregarding the wishes of us, its citizens. Mayor and council were presented with a barrage of opposition: 13 of 18 property owners expressed they did not want the increased development in our quiet rural community. I'm not sure where council learned their math skills, but that calculates into a majority to me.
Cristina Hutchinson
Prince George
