Apparently, the County Planning Department is still feeling some compulsion to follow some rules about widening APA Road where the great cathedral ceiling of maples inspires everyone who has ever been near to it.
The developer doesn't want it to happen (although he wants to build a bunch of homes that triggers its happening), the future home owners will not wish it had happened, nobody who currently lives in Point Roberts wants it to happen, and I suppose the maples themselves, if they were given a voice, would say, "Oh, No, Please!"
But County Planning has rules and if you want to develop that area, you have to widen the road because the road is already substandard. By having the widening take place upon a development application, the county makes the developer pay to get the road up to standards. And to widen the road you have to cut down the maples. And even if, in my lifetime, nobody is going to sell and then build 50 homes in that area, in order to sell ANY homes, the developer will need a construction permit, and to get that, the developer will have to cut down the maples. And then we can all agree that that was a real shame, given that there are not enough people or houses actually to justify this wider road and these no trees.
We had to destroy the village in order to save it? Are we going to have to end up lying down in the road in front of the bulldozers as they come down APA Road to do their dirty work? (Or whatever machines they use; I doubt if axes are on the agenda, so if they send a crew of folks with chain saws, will we have to chain ourselves to the trees? I'm up for it. I'm mad as hell, etc., etc.). Perhaps it's time to think of ourselves as about to become part of The Arab Spring, demanding a little democracy for Point Roberts. To the barricades!
1 comment:
It would be awful if they took those nice trees down and it would be awful to have the road widened when it works perfectly well as is.
I am for saying no to any attempt at taking those trees down and saying no to any road widening.
But I also think we can have an alternative that any developer who saves money from road widening expense can contribute to the community in another way.
How about an indoor/outdoor pool instead of road widening for young people to learn swimming and gets jobs life guarding. And for old folks to be able to do aquasize to keep all those muscles working.
This way we can be strong about any road widening, but at the same time can also direct positive energy towards getting a local pool that can help save lives with water safety and swimming lessons.
making the whole exercise a positive experence.
Saltspring island's new pool with alternative bio methods of pool maintaining and cleaning is working well and could be a model for us.
Heidi
Post a Comment