Editor:
I read with interest your March 16 article “SSC ‘dead’ after Sechelt council vote.” The entire article seems to target the mayor and council as the problem. You quote the project manager Todd McGowan: “... or we can sell the property to a third party that would most likely have little or no connection to the Sunshine Coast.” And then the article goes on to tell us that the only connection SSC has to the Sunshine Coast is the developers. The named investors are off-Coast including Hong Kong.
The real problem is that SSC’s proposal does not meet the current Official Community Plan (OCP). One major difference is growth. The community plan states: “The growth management strategy outlined in the following policies is intended to focus new growth within or adjacent to existing developed areas.” The SSC plan calls for a sustainable community that is just a new town site to be built in a rural area. Rather than work with the community to alter the OCP, the developers simply ignored the OCP and instead tried to push the development through. I am quite sure the previous mayor and council would have done just that.
There is need for an OCP as a strategy to ensure the Sunshine Coast develops in a manner that is conducive to the majority of the people who live here. If SSC and its investors want to create a new, sustainable community they need to work with the public on changing the OCP, not dumping their proposal on council so they can be the bad guys when they have to turn it down.
Sechelt is going to elect a new mayor and council this year. I strongly recommend voters pay attention to the voting history of the returning candidates and watch for a slate of developer candidates that will be put forward to ensure they can pass whatever they want without regard for community plans.
Blake Cyr, Sechelt
