Editor:
We want to thank Coun. Alton Toth for being the lone voice of reason in opposing council’s third reading of Westcor’s 5401 Mills Road 43-unit development in its current form.
Mr. Toth understood — and respected — serious concerns raised by West Sechelt’s longtime homeowners over infilling 34-townhouses and nine lockout basement suites into a single-family home neighbourhood without providing enough onsite storage, waste management and parking.
Why did the mayor and the rest of council continue to ignore 100 pages of concerns and public feedback from taxpayer-residents, who were not opposed to new development but rather to the scale of its density?
Why did the mayor and council not require the developer to further reduce the number of units — if only by a few — to provide for necessary and inevitable parking demands?
History shows that Westcor initially wanted to build smaller single-family homes but was asked by Mayor Darnelda Siegers and others to instead apply for high density multi-family rezoning. In fact, the mayor said she was “first in line among others” to tell the developer to do this…when there are already 90 townhouses about to be built on McCourt Road, one block away from Mills.
Are processes like “Have Your Say, Sechelt” or public hearings serious about eliciting and respecting stakeholder’s concerns? If so, how can we trust a mayor and council that refuses to consider, in good faith, the expression of concerns and opposition? If the process of asking for feedback is meaningless and an exercise in tokenism, why pretend otherwise? Perhaps they could recount their rationale for dismissing these quality of life concerns?
Alton Toth was the only councillor with enough integrity to ask for reasonable adjustments that would balance the needs of long-time residents with those of future residents. Otherwise, one may be left with the impression that Sechelt’s mayor and council push through whatever they’ve pre-determined with developers.
Teri McArter on behalf of
The Mills Road Neighbourhood Committee, Sechelt
