"Imagine Southlands"
is the slogan that the Sean Hodgin owned Century Group is using to sell the residents of Tsawwassen on his latest development to build over 1900 homes on the land formerly known as the Spetifore Farmlands. Its a common theme these days as the citizen group calling themselves "Southlands the Facts" are also asking people to imagine Southlands. That is where the similarities end. The developer is trying to invoke images of his proposed "new-urbanism" housing development while the citizen group is hoping to convince their neighbours that "paving over fertile agricultural land" is something more of nightmares.The war over the Tsawwassen Area Plan (TAP) is heating up. After a recent botched online survey that had peoples answers being switched from pro-agriculture to pro-development, the City of Delta contracted Ipsos Reid to conduct a mail out survey of Tsawwassen residents and businesses to gauge the community's opinion regarding this development. With the battle lines clearly drawn on the first page of the survey the Century Group has mobilized in an effort to change the overwhelming public consensus against their proposed rezoning of agricultural land.
The battle in the local newspapers has been won handily by Century. Their full page colour ads faced very little competition with Southlands the Facts garnering a small banner ad encouraging readers to go to their website www.southlandsthefacts.ca
Even with their seemingly limitless advertising budget the developer is leaving nothing to chance. Residents of 'the Terrace' called the Delta Free Press complaining that Century Group representatives were canvassing their neighbourhoods asking them to fill out their surveys to allow for a 'little bit' of development. Objections to development were handled by Sean Hodgins himself as he accompanied the canvassers on their door-to-door campaign.
One of the key battle issues is the war of numbers. Both sides have differing statistics on key issues like population growth, traffic congestion, and even the number of dump trucks trips required to provide the fill required. Of course, the only number on Sean Hodgins mind is the 90% consensus against a similar development proposal brought forth by TDL in 1989 that sparked the longest running public hearing in Commonwealth history and if he can't overcome popular opinion he will have to sit back and "Imagine Southlands" a little longer.
Wow! Finally an unbiased story out of the "Free Press". Someone must have read a 'Journalism for Dummies' book over the weekend.
ReplyDeleteOh Elvis, you really are funny.
ReplyDeleteHow about looking forward instead of constantly looking backward? Just a thought.
Keep up the good work and don't let the 'Naysayers' get you down. We have crested the summit of the development rollercoaster and we are plummeting down the otherside. The population of the world is unsustainable and we now need to look forward to a cataclysmic collapse of the way we live. As a society, how can you be thinking of building cities when we should be building an Ark.
ReplyDeleteThere are two sayings that come to mind:
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
and
"Fool me once, shame on you. Foll me twice, shame on me."
How many mass developments does society have to tolerate before we realize that they are all failures?
"But this one is different", says the developer.
"How is this one different?" Asks the concerned citizen.
"This one is all about saving the environment.", he replies."Look there's a farm."
"But isn't it already a farm?"
It is sad how the pro southlands group commonly spout "I". As in "I" need a place to downsize to. There is no thought to the pressures of decreasing our farmland. Thereby increasing pressure to import food from other countries with scarce water resources while we should be growing our own. That is a crime against humanity.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good plan, it's a nice development, it's a generous plan is all true when it is NOT on farmland.
There is also no thought for our children and grandchildren who will be paying exorbitant prices for staples like potatoes and corn. We won't be able to meet our food needs as our precious farmlands become buried under SFPR, railyards, and industrial developments. This "I'm alright Jack" to heck with you, stone age mentality is to the detriment of everyone. People recognize this and are saying stop.
We must not lost more farmland. Just drive down Hwy 10 through Surrey.
Anyone who thinks I need to downsize here, I want to live my whole life here, I, I, I, are not thinking about sustainability and their children's futures or lack of.
To say nothing about living in a non stop construction zone for the next 20 years, traffic, the nonsense about needing housing etc. Keep AGR and stop SFPR.