Letter to Council from Mike Tribes, Porter Creek Resident

Supporters of McIntyre Creek need to get involved by sending letters to the City Council, and the newspapers, to keep up the pressure to protect the McIntyre Creek wildlife corridor.

If you read the comments below, you will see that again the deck is being stacked so the City gets the answers it wants, without being open to the possibility that Porter Creek D will not be developed.

Thanks to Mike Tribe for this letter.

"I want to thank the City Council for hearing input from concerned citizens and various groups.

I especially want to thank Councillors Cameron, Irwin, and Pillai for recognizing that a communication breakdown occured during the working group meetings, and that the process needed to be fixed. Councillors Stockdale and Roberts offered encouragement by suggesting that we move ahead with this preliminary phase and answer a lot of questions, so we can proceed to make a decision, and that development is not a done deal.

After reading the PC-D Subdivision Development Agreement between YTG and the city, I noticed some things that are of particular concern, that make me question whether or not this is a done deal.

On page 1

Whereas: B. the Parties have agreed in principle that the area known as Porter Creek D... is developable land for a residential neighbourhood and wish for the planning and public consultation process that will lead to development of this area to proceed.

Whereas: E. the Parties have agreed that all planning work undertaken to develop lost must be 100% recovered from the sale of such lots.

This suggests to me that the basic terms of reference of the agreement suggest that the city and YTG want the development to occur, and the planning and public consultation will lead to development of the area, and that all costs will be 100% recoverable.

Councillor Roberts: If development does not occur, which you promised is a valid outcome, how will the $420,000 cost be recovered, as stated in this agreement? And why does section B say planning will lead to development?

The document also says under responsibilities, item 2.2:

The Planning, feasibility and subdivision approval exercise will result in:

• An Environmental Assessment decision document that supports the Porter Creek D subdivision development; and
• an approved subdivision plan for the phased development.

This item also suggest that there will be an approved subdivision plan. This sounds like a done deal. There is no "if" in this clause. Apparently YESAB will approve development and an approved subdivision plan will be produced.

Under resposibilities, item 2.5:

The detailed engineering design and tender documents exercise will result in:

• Development of the Porter Creek D Subdivision

Again this raises the fear that development is a done deal.

I understand the sense of urgency to push ahead with this. Section 6.0, Schedule says the detailed design of the development can commence no later than December 2011. Was it this clause that was driving the pressure to not restore the faith in the City's consulting process, in delaying a decision by 6 weeks?

And while I have faith in the promises made by Councillors Roberts and Stockdale that development is not a forgone conclusion, and that this is just predesign, will those commitments supercede this Subdivision Planning Agreement, which commits to cost recovery, should it be decided that development not go ahead?

Thanks for listening.

Mike Tribes

Porter Creek Resident"