Jerry's Letter
Jerry Pagliocchini sent us an e-mail about how the development up at Deer Ridge has led to erosion and drainage problems for the residents below in Prairie Valley. An excerpt:
"I think we should be very selective if we decide to develop our mountains and ridges. I am not saying we don’t develop them if it meets a need but we should put a great deal of thought into it and should only consider development after an extensive environmental impact study has been done.
We all know that the ALR was created to protect agricultural land. When the ALR was created, it forced development to take place on the hillsides and slopes of mountains. I don’t think many people envisioned the environmental consequences that followed. We all know the situation in the Fraser Valley with residential development on hillsides and ridges. I feel we have a parallel situation unfolding in Summerland in Prairie Valley. Prior to the development at Deer Ridge the people living down slope - Hermiston, Kolbus, Washtock, Von Krosigh, Webbr and Haytec did not experience runoff like they now do."
posted by Jeremy |
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7 Comments:
The Deer Ridge development is not a bad development as hillside residential areas go. I know a few of the people living there and most have attempted to keep the original trees in place on their properties to prevent erosion. Like nearly everyone else in this community they have little experience in xerophilous landscaping and should be nudged towards that philosophy with a shovel. But you know, the real criminals are the ones who own property dissected by Prairie Creek--not everyone, but the obvious miscreants can easily be spotted as their horses, cattle and sheep are knee deep in the mud along side the creek. The Municipality should long ago have demanded a riparian border with fences on this and all other creeks flowing within Municipal boundaries. Some of those people actually believe the creek belongs to them!
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Anonymous, at 12:00 p.m.
I agree with you, I think it is a great development but these people don't live downstream. This issue has never been dealt with. Go talk to Jim Hermiston.
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Anonymous, at 4:53 p.m.
To call the people who live along the creek criminals who have animals that are knee deep in mud is ignorant on your part. Why are they knee deep? The issue with Deer Ridge is not preventing erosion, it's an issue that will occur with any hillside development. Excessive runoff from roofs and driveways plus the disturbed drainage as a result of the blasting needed to put in foundations and septic tanks. Rather than smelling th flowers while you at Deer Ridge, make an effort to talk to the people who are mentioned in the first response. I doubt if you would want to live there. Talk to Mr. Weber.
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Anonymous, at 7:17 p.m.
I'm not sure about about the drainage issues, but many of these points seem valid to me.
I think Deer Ridge looks as comfortable as any big-home suburb and I'm glad they bothered to leave some trees up. I guess my main question might be this: why was it built in the first place? Aside from unanticipated drainage (and other environmental) issues, why was a hillside suburb developed away from town, above a substandard road, with no sewer line in site? Is the original developer of that site helping to pay for the future sewer line that is supposed to go in there? Road upgrades?
I think it's great that this is being discussed, but I also want to remind everyone to keep things respectful and please sign your name -- even just a first name is better than nothing -- otherwise it feels like talking to a robot.
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Jeremy, at 10:46 p.m.
I agree with Jeremy that contributors who make comments about the way our community is heading shouldn’t hide behind the invisible “Anon”. But, I do think the people of North Prairie Valley will soon have more to worry about then just erosion. If I may quote Section 5-35 of the OCP:
“The North Praire {sic} Valley Future Growth Area is planned to be developed as a “Complete Community” consisting of:
*A village center on the east side of Cartwright Mountain containing a range of retail office and personal service commercial uses, schools, recreation facilities and parks to meet the day-to-day needs of the neighbourhood. It is not intended that the village center will directly compete with the Downtown commercial core. It is recognized that a new Official Community Plan designation will be required to accommodate the village center concept.
*A range of residential uses and densities developed in well-defined neighbourhoods.
*An open space system including passive and active parks, as well as a trail and walking system linking neighbourhoods, with the proposed village center and the District’s existing Downtown commercial core.”
In another section they actually suggest "that close to 3000 dwelling units could be accommodated in this region."
Uhhh, did they say “east” side of Cartwright?? My gosh, that’s in line of sight with my place on Jones Flat, isn’t it? What’s that got to do with North Prairie Valley? In any case, we had all better get ready for a “Name That Village” contest soon.
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Anonymous, at 3:22 a.m.
Good point, Frank. I'm tempted to assume that the people who support the Summerland Vistas neighbourhood plan on the east side of Cartwright kinda like having it lumped in with "North Prairie Valley"...it makes it sound like the rest of us in town won't be able to see the housing fungus spreading up the side of the mountain most visible from town.
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Jeremy, at 2:54 p.m.
Frank, I was thinking about this "Cartwright Village" concept again this weekend and realizing the absurdity of it. I know it's probably an amateurish nod to New Urbanism, but I actually think it's intentionally misleading.
Everyone knows that residential development on Cartwright fits every definition of sprawl -- if you live near Deer Ridge, you have to use your car to do anything and go anywhere. So by pretending that there could be a little village up there, the developers give the impression that the suburb will somehow be more sustainable.
It's a total crock. The low population density will not support another commercial center for decades...maybe not ever. Ask the people who tried to run the general store up in Kettle Valley, Kelowna's award-winning nod to New Urbanism -- it went out of business in less than two years. These developments are car-driven suburbs. If people work elsewhere, they're shopping elsewhere too.
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Jeremy, at 11:16 p.m.
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