Summerland, The Okanagan's Best Kept Secret
A snappy little advertising slogan to describe our town and now it could well apply to the actions of our Council in the disposing of land owned by the Municipality on Little Giant’s Head Mountain. For those of you who have walked and hiked this little gem, this is a wake-up call to action.
Council proposes to trade 18.2 hectares of reasonably flat land in return for 14.2 hectares of much more undulating land with rocky outcrops, some trail work, two covered picnic tables, a parking area, signage and an interpretive centre from the developer – such a deal, but for whom?
Do we really need an interpretive centre and who is going to staff it? If the Council really feels the need for this work to be done, surely it would be better to wait until the development is complete and then use the roads put in by the developer and have City employees do the work (perhaps a good summer work programme for the young people home from university or college). Better yet, leave the land as it is!
This is yet another attempt by our Council to slide something by in the doldrums of summer when citizens are busy with orchard work, gardening, those summer visitors and, of course, summer holidays. The other concern I had was that the local name for this area, Little Giant’s Head Mountain, was not mentioned in the Notice of Intention and had it not been for a letter to the editor by Mr. Grey, I too might have missed this notice.
The proposed land disposal will be discussed at the regular meeting of Council on August 8, 2005 and it may well be the only time we will get to debate this matter. It is imperative that you act now – plan to attend this meeting and voice your preferences, either for or against. If you are unable to attend on that evening but want your voice heard, submit your thoughts and ideas in writing to City Hall BEFORE August 4th.
Yours truly,
Jean Fishenden.
Council proposes to trade 18.2 hectares of reasonably flat land in return for 14.2 hectares of much more undulating land with rocky outcrops, some trail work, two covered picnic tables, a parking area, signage and an interpretive centre from the developer – such a deal, but for whom?
Do we really need an interpretive centre and who is going to staff it? If the Council really feels the need for this work to be done, surely it would be better to wait until the development is complete and then use the roads put in by the developer and have City employees do the work (perhaps a good summer work programme for the young people home from university or college). Better yet, leave the land as it is!
This is yet another attempt by our Council to slide something by in the doldrums of summer when citizens are busy with orchard work, gardening, those summer visitors and, of course, summer holidays. The other concern I had was that the local name for this area, Little Giant’s Head Mountain, was not mentioned in the Notice of Intention and had it not been for a letter to the editor by Mr. Grey, I too might have missed this notice.
The proposed land disposal will be discussed at the regular meeting of Council on August 8, 2005 and it may well be the only time we will get to debate this matter. It is imperative that you act now – plan to attend this meeting and voice your preferences, either for or against. If you are unable to attend on that evening but want your voice heard, submit your thoughts and ideas in writing to City Hall BEFORE August 4th.
Yours truly,
Jean Fishenden.
posted by Amie |
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3 Comments:
As Jean mentioned there are currently a series of walking trails available to the
public and accessible from the end of Alder Street and via walking paths at the ends of both Pollack and Palmer.
However, if the proposed land swap goes ahead this area will vanish into another subdivison and we will receive in return another
parcel of land that has NO public access to it.
Have a look at the map in the
Summerland Review (the one with no mention that this is park land) and you will note that the area the Municipality will receive
from LGH is surrounded by private land. Okay so LGH will create a path and provide picnic tables on this parcel. But if there is no access to it, what is the point. It makes no sense. But then selling a park makes no sense either.
Please attend the August 8th Council meeting and say NO to the sale of this park. Because if we don't say no now who knows what piece of public propterty will be next.
David Finnis
By
Anonymous, at 9:41 a.m.
Council has apparently postponed discussion of the Little Giant's Head land swap until 7pm TONIGHT. If you can make it there, please come and let Council know what you think of this "deal".
By
Anonymous, at 10:56 a.m.
Since my last post apparently only has a time tag, I will clarify that tonight is Monday, August 8.
By
Anonymous, at 11:01 a.m.
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