Editor:
With our sixth year of summer drought looming, the last thing we need in Sechelt is more development. But for anyone foolish enough to want to buy a home here, in view of Seawatch, and the fact we have droughts every summer, there are lots of townhouses available at the Edgewater development on Porpoise Bay, to name just one of many ongoing developments, spreading like cancerous growths along shorelines and deforested hillsides.
We don’t need a Blue Ocean Golf Course hotel with 140 rooms, gym, spa, pool, etc. Just think of all those toilets flushing, showers showering, taps running. To build it would be a slap in the face to residents who, when Stage 4 water restrictions hit, are told we can’t even fill up a birdbath or water flowerpots on our decks. But tourists are welcome to come and use as much water as they want.
We don’t need 29 acres on Field Road developed as “mixed use, residential commercial.” I’ve walked my dog there for years, and ironically there’s water everywhere; even in the height of summer droughts water runs down the gravel road, and burbles up in underground springs. Is it wise to build on such saturated ground? Won’t the buildings sink?
But as we’ve seen, ground stability doesn’t concern the District of Sechelt, it’s always develop at all costs. Even if the SCRD can solve our water “shortage” (read lack of foresight and water storage), if Sechelt keeps on approving developments, and our population keeps growing, we’ll never have enough water.
It boils down to greed – and stupidity. A dangerous combination for which the residents of Sechelt will keep on paying.
Cecilia Ohm-Eriksen, Sechelt
