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Developer-speak

Re: Large lots and NIMBY going the way of the dodo by Mr. Shick.

Re: Large lots and NIMBY going the way of the dodo by Mr. Shick.

In your March 8 edition you printed a letter by Mr. Schick, a developer. He wrote a diatribe in favour of endless residential development in North Saanich, and against Mr. Harrison, a citizen concerned about the implementation of the existing Official Community Plan (OCP) and the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS). The telling sentence in Mr. Shick’s letter was “I believe everyone should have the right to live and work in the same municipality if they so choose.”

What a peculiar belief. Mr. Shick is welcome to it. He is not welcome to try to implement this belief against the wishes of the community as expressed in the OCP and RGS.

Mr. Shick’s belief does not drive regional planning anywhere on the planet. Quite the opposite is true. All over the world stringent rules are applied to prevent the spread of the urban environment in order to protect the rural environment and to protect wilderness and parks.

On the Saanich Peninsula, the OCPs and RGS clearly express the desire of the citizenry to concentrate housing and urban development in Brentwood Bay, Saanichton and Sidney. Thus the remaining farmland and rural areas can continue to exist.

Mr. Shick’s belief is ‘developer speak’, language used to justify the endless spread of the built environment. His belief creates a problem for Mr. Shick, but it should not be allowed to create a problem for the vast majority who have different beliefs about development and  regional planning on the Saanich Peninsula.

Bert Slater

North Saanich