Editor:
An Oct. 10 letter in the Outlook contradicts its professed support for “caring communities” in Canmore by resorting to name-calling.
Dismissing as NIMBY substantive community concerns about the irreversible development of long-standing forested land in nearby Quarry Lake Park is demeaning. Canmore needs mature deliberation towards council ultimately making andecision in the best interests of all residents.
NIMBY is a pejorative label for opposition to the siting of essential community facilities like waste transfer stations, jails, etc. The Peaks of Grassi (PoG) re-zoning application proposes houses averaging more than $650,000, meaning mortgage payments above $3,300 per month, assuming a 10 per cent down payment.
Why are another 19 expensive homes needed now, let alone deemed essential? The PoG re-zoning proposal is not effective for solving an “affordable” housing crisis. In any case, council recently approved a mix of 200 residential units at Stewart Creek. TSMV owns land available for about 2,700 new units that need not require imposing retroactive densification on established communities.
The Oct. 10 letter is also wrong in asserting we characterized investors as being: “reckless, heartless and greedy.” Those are the writer’s words, not ours. We can only imagine these investors are motivated to have their April 2014, $325,000 purchase investment grow by 10 to 20 fold if PoG re-zoning is approved by council.
Canmore council invested taxpayers’ funds to achieve a legal settlement agreement with Three Sisters in 1998 to limit the scale of development in PoG. Given this resolution, Town administration confirmed for those of us who checked with it, before buying, that PoG was built to its maximum density. If 1998 Canmore council sought legal remedies, at taxpayers expense, to cap residential development in PoG, what now is the justification for increasing that development limit?
PoG already has the second highest density of all residential districts in Canmore. This re-zoning proposal would see the number of homes on the affected stretch of Lawrence Grassi Ridge jump by 40 per cent and green frontage there drop by 70 per cent. This is a major change to neighbourhood character from what was completed when approved density was reached 12 years ago.
We must trust our current council will not be persuaded to place the potential windfall financial interests of three investors above valid interests of Canmore residents who favour preserving green space nearby the lands managed for all of us by the Quarry Lake Heritage Foundation. Building 19 expensive houses on critically located patches of forest will be an irreversible loss for the whole community.
Name-calling will not contribute to achieving a “caring communities,” made-in-Canmore, solution to this proposal. The implications of this council decision for all residents who value Canmore’s natural environment go far beyond approving a small, expensive residential development.
Elizabeth and Steve Hrudey,
Peaks of Grassi, Canmore
