Once again as summer turns to autumn we the residents of Scott Avenue, watch the leaves begin to blaze in autumn glory as we wait for the inevitable re-zoning notice at 273 Scott Ave. to appear and mark the end of another hot lazy summer.
Time to put on our best clothes and march smartly to the public hearing held every Tuesday after Labour Day to try and plead our cause to have the zoning stay the same. Some call us anti-development and anti-density. They claim that we are trying to hold on to a way of life no longer viable in a new and changing world of decreasing resources and global climatic change.
Personally, I would wish for some development on 273 Scott Ave. Perhaps a nice four-plex or even two four-plexes with some green space for families to live and kids to play. Something affordable for young mothers living on the edge of homelessness, a place for people to build a life and feel safe and secure.
A four-storey, 16-unit apartment building isn’t going to house a lot of families is it? What happened to council’s promise to help the most vulnerable of our community? The developer has stated in the past that he will be unable to make a profit unless he puts an apartment on the lot. I wonder how all the other developers in town make profits building duplexes and four-plexes on similar sized lots? A lot of questions that nobody seems willing to answer.
I wonder, what happened to your promises to promote families, and the close bonds of neighbourhoods. Where are the green spaces and places for children and families to play? What happened to the responsibility of developers and councils to work with their community and help the disenfranchised? I guess it is all part of a past that no longer matters.
Gwenellen Tarbet
Penticton