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For developers to look at our downtown

Editor, The News:

Re: Open house on Albion flats packs them in again (The News, April 1).

Last week I took some time to attend the meeting at Maple Ridge municipal hall concerning the application for removal of agricultural land in Albion.

Our municipal politicians are under a great deal of pressure with respect to this application.

It’s clearly a hot button issue and there are many points of view on what is needed in that area.

We have a number of large areas in Maple Ridge that are presently paved and badly under utilized.

The area designated light industrial right across the street from the land in question is an excellent example of this.

Other areas that spring to mind are the Liquidation World mall and the old Mussallem car lo. Both areas designated commercial, I would think.

I’m thankful that plans are progressing in the area between the two main downtown malls and I am hopeful that Haney Place Mall can be renovated to provide more shopping.

A second story on that building would be very welcome.

Paving designated agricultural land close to salmon bearing streams while all of this already developed land sits around unused seems incredibly unwise to me.

When we develop housing on all sides of a piece of agriculturally viable land and then say it’s no longer viable because of all of the houses around it, we are playing a really bad game with our grandchildren’s future.

Those who think that this development won’t hurt our downtown core are wishful thinkers.

Those who think garden roofs on the new buildings in Albion are a solution are dreamers.

If you move to this town and expect the same shopping as they have in Kerrisdale or Whistler, you are naive.

If you move to this town and expect to be able to stop commuting and get a high-paying job instantly, you need to give your head a shake.

I’ve been in this town for 23 years and watched the steady development. I do not find Maple Ridge nearly as pretty or livable as it used to be.

We are running the risk of losing our defining characteristic as a community with a balance of rural and urban.

Do we really want to join the long list of communities that have become indistinguishable examples of urban sprawl, big box stores and decayed downtown cores?

If our council said an unequivocal no to sending these types of applications to the Agricultural Land Commission, my guess is that would-be employers and retailers would be forced to look at the already developed and under utilized areas around our town.

I’d like to implore council to think of ways of supporting the farmers that already exist in our municipality so that they don’t give up and try to market their land to speculators.

Perhaps a town hall meeting, inviting our farmers and rural citizens for their perspective is long overdue.

Elizabeth Rosenau

Maple Ridge