For about one and a half hours this evening Council listened to both project proponent and supporters who I would judge to be about 2/3 to 3/4 of the audience and the rest who were not so happy.  It seemed as the backbone of the supporters was made of developers, contractors of all types and related real estate people.  I don't blame them.  They are counting on getting some scraps from the feast which will take place if the proponent follows through on his promises.  And there could be jobs, etc. for some time.  Buy how about buyers?  Times have changed and it is too early to tell by how much.  Of course we now know that promises made to the public about no initial city expenditure on project infrastructure, can be written on the wind.  Taking all that Cable Bay presents as gospel, the project does not seem to present a risk.  But we all know that any billion dollar project in these times is a risk and where private business usually has a get away plan, the public's pocket always remains available.  There has been no risk analysis for the public on this project and I feel this is negligent.

There were a number of counter arguments which ranged from the procedural (that the process is ultra vires due to a previous public hearing about which I certainly would like to hear more); the strategic (do we really want to give up the only on-the water heavy industrial site in town); the economic (where is the study that says that all this infrastructure will pay for itself); and the logistic (do we want to revitalize our downtown or do we want to spend our development efforts on the periphery).

Those who are watching closely will find that a decision on this subject will be coming forth on Monday, April 6, as Council today announced that  a special meeting of Council has been called for that date at 7pm in the Shaw Auditorium.  Other items of interest include the budget, the proposed next deal for MIllennium and other items of interest.  Of course as this is a special meeting of Council, the tv cameras will not be there to broadcast the manner in which these very significant issues will be dealt with.

 


Comments

Chris McGrath

04/04/2009 03:24:50

Ron, a big argument against the rezoning is the loss of industrial land yet you and I both know that should this be defeated, the moment someone wants to build more smoke stacks on that same "industrial land" those opposed to Cable Bay will then be opposed to the pollution/particulate matter/effluent from the then proposed smoke stacks.

The industrial land argument is one of convenience.

I would rather have a bunch of golfers in my neighbourhood than another Harmac!

 

Ron Bolin

04/04/2009 08:24:05

Chris: I believe you are correct to a point. If a highly polluting industry were to be put forward I am sure there would be an uproar -even thought it would be adjacent to another plant of concern for pollution. Would we really want to spread it around to other areas?

In effect, do we wish to banish all I4 industrial land in the city? And if so, where is our policy in this regard? I am against acting in haste and repenting at leisure. We could use some well paying jobs, perhaps assembly plants for green energy equipment, i.e. wind, tidal, wave, etc. which would not be greatly polluting. This site offers access to ships that could bring in the parts and take away the finished products. Do we really want to aim at a geriatric city? If so we need a conscious decision in this regard.

I guess my primary concern is that we are not active in our planning, but passive, waiting for someone to come along and tell us what we want, without the grace to ask us, nor leadership from the city.

In the longer run I believe that the question of where we want development to take place is even more important. It we want a vital downtown we don't want another Woodgrove or two in the South. This is what destroyed the downtown in the first place. I also have serious reservations about how many malls any town can take, particularly when we have greatly increased mall competition to both our north and our south. Where are the needed goals and studies??

 



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