Editor:
It's a shame to see the public service bureaucracy wasting so much taxpayer and citizens' money on the simple right of a property owner to protect their land from erosion ("Beach wall owners threatened with legal action," Coast Reporter, July 23).
For 11 years the Pedersens have been waiting for the bureaucrats to approve their plans to protect their property. The owners have followed the proper permitting steps, knowing full well the extra complications involved when dealing with the foreshore. Eleven years - that is an untimely and unreasonable amount of time to have to wait for any meaningful decision or approvals from agencies that have jurisdiction in these applications.
The Pedersens are good citizens caught in a hopeless tangle of government red tape. From the picture that accompanied the story, the revetment looks as tastefully done as any other. Under the circumstances, I'm sure they have sought engineering advice and ensured the wall is within the bounds of their surveyed property.
The Pedersens have done nothing more than the government has done at Davis Bay, the First Nations at Wilson Creek and thousands of other private property owners along the Coast when faced with shoreline erosion. It will be interesting to see if the Sunshine Coast Regional District will have to wait 11 years to deal with the erosion along Ocean Beach Esplanade, and will their revetments be engineered or look any better?
Trevor Berry
Sechelt
