Editor, The News:
Re: City curious about riverside lots (The News, Oct. 3).
An official community plan is put in place to guide a city’s growth, transportation, environment and economy.
Any prudent person looking to move to an area and buy property goes to city hall and looks at the OCP to make an informed decision before moving to their desired location.
Leaving aside at the moment the environmental and legal hurdles to the city of building on a fish bearing floodplain and heritage river, Maple Ridge city staff recommended turning down this application due, in part, to it not fitting into Maple Ridge’s official community plan.
For the majority of council to ignore the recommendations of its own informed and highly paid staff, along with the OCP, is a slap in the face to Maple Ridge residents who have most likely made the largest investment decision of their lives based on our OCP, along with citizens like myself who, over the years, have spent many hours being involved with our evolving OCP vision statement.
The hypocrisy of council at this meeting was evident as it approved the proceeding application going ahead based on it fitting into the OCP.
With the upcoming municipal elections, all candidates for council and mayoral positions should publicly state whether or not they believe in our OCP and vision statement and whether they would abide by it when making decisions related to it.
We have already heard the answer from our current council.
Doug Stanger
Maple Ridge