Editor:
I have now read various Canmore residents’ responses to the proposed development plan in the Peaks of Grassi near Quarry Lake and listened to my Canmore friends contribute their points of view to this proposed development.
This particular area seems to draw a Canmore community response that is beyond the Peaks of Grassi neighbourhood and is far beyond the few houses that face the proposed area for development.
I am not opposed to development in Canmore. I think the issue is not one of development or no development, rather it is an issue of asking the people of a community how this particular development may affect them and do they support the idea?
In Canmore, “who is the community?” I began to think about the differences between living in a city versus a smaller community. In the city, there may well be some communities/subdivisions of the greater city area that say “not in my back yard” and local residents may not support a particular proposed action. The greater city is rarely interested in these discussions, however, because there are always alternative places to go and more choices available. Decisions related to approval of land use usually stay known only to those few that are very directly affected.
It would appear that the small community of Canmore is not comparable to the city as people of Canmore view the recreational and wildlife areas as important to them.
They view all of Canmore as part of their interest rather than only looking in their own small neighbourhoods. This leads me to view each parcel of land that comes forward to town council for review as important.
It is important to hear from Canmore residents how they currently use and view the land. If we are going to act in a community-conscious way we have to look at the bigger impact.
I have now seen lists of people who feel strongly that this particular piece of land is of importance to them and these names do not represent the immediate back yard of the Peaks or Quarry Pines residents.
Why do other people care? They don’t live across from a proposed development. I can only conclude that it is meaningful and used by these people even though they do not live in the immediate area. I can further postulate that Canmorites make use of greater Canmore and they do not live within the defined boundaries of their little neighbourhoods as do those who live in cities.
I live in a small community because of the ways people care about things that are not in their back yards. I live in a small community because people are not interested in development because it is possible, rather the people care about where and how development occurs.
There may well be other parcels of land with the same land use designation as the Quarry Lake area, but the people of Canmore may not be using or viewing those areas in the same ways as they appear to be using and viewing the proposed development by QuantumPlace in Quarry Pines.
Lorri Yasenik,
Canmore
