Editor:
Readers should be aware that the Town of Gibsons is moving with undue haste to implement the George project, which sets the stage for a complete high-rise waterfront.
Mayor Rowe answered my letter, asking again for our long promised local neighbourhood meeting on this proposed high-rise project, with a long, wordy letter which seems to say we do not need a local neighbourhood meeting, “but the whole community may be treated as one.”
In fact, his letter says: “If the project is supported, an information meeting may be held, and a public hearing and final consideration of the project would take place later this summer.”
That reply is astonishing: many of us who live in Gibsons Landing, around this hillside looking out over the water, will assuredly be affected by towering high-rises some 125 feet or more above the water. Our traffic flow and parking will be considerably affected, especially during construction. We who overlook this lovely harbour and waterfront, who thought we were protected by a carefully developed Official Community Plan, will suffer from depreciated property values, traffic problems, and loss of the desirable community we built; those in other parts of Gibsons will not.
Far too many have too many concerns about the whole process: we object strongly to the intent to hold final consideration in the summer, when too many people will be away. We object to the fact that many of our letters asking that developers proposing buildings in excess of the OCP’s 35-foot maximum height should erect a temporary structure to show the true height, has been ignored. And now that we are so very short of water, we worry greatly about our aquifer and having to supply so much more water to so many new users.
Graham Wray, Gibsons
