Editor: Dear mayor and council: In my nervousness last night (June 17), I forgot to read my notes and mention a couple of important points that I hope you will consider.
1. Good wildlife protection and management does not encourage wildlife to hang out close to human habitats. As the mother of Ben Allan who ran into the cougar a couple of months ago, I know the implications for both humans and wildlife when wildlife and human encounters increase. Many of the same people who want to save the ‘park’ for their local elk would be the first ones to want a cougar shot if it threatened them or their pets.
2. We have such a serious crisis with affordable housing that all areas available for affordable development should be used ASAP. It’s not a matter of which site is best, we need to use them all as soon as the financial resources are available. Levies, taxes, permit fees should all be looked at to help make this happen. Single level living units for seniors and rental units for staff are desperately needed. $400,000 PAH townhouses will not solve this problem.
3. Private land in redevelopment areas needs to be utilized as well to contribute to a solution. Reviewing and modifying current land-use bylaws to allow suites and higher densities is critical. Ie. TeePee Town will soon be developed with large three-plexes on parcels of land that are bigger than the downtown luxury fourplex lots. If planning and council do not act quickly, the existing illegal suites in TeePee Town that are housing seniors and staff for downtown core businesses will be replaced with condos serving mostly the weekend or part-time market.
4. There will always be people of different opinions, but if council and planning want to be good stewards of this beautiful land, they need do what’s best in the long-term for the majority of the people.
Last time I checked there were less than 300 people as members of the Save the Park page. If council and planning try to appease everyone and under-utilize any of the available land, the opportunity to really make a difference in solving the problem will be lost. If you try to please everyone, you will end up pleasing no one.
Mari Ann Allan,
Canmore
