Banks Crescent Boondoggle

[Osoyoos_Familyof4]

Where are the empty storefronts in Summerland? I used to live there and I just walked the Main Street (both of them) just before Xmas, I never noticed empty storefronts. The one area they did want to build that big building on is absolutely begging for redevelopment, there are abandoned houses and buildings on that lower part of the lakeshore, that area needs help.

However, I didn't that area was right for that particular development for many reasons.

[fluffy]

Fluff? Are you frikken serious with this query?

Yes princess, I am frikken serious.

I moved to Summerland in 1969 with my parents and have called either Summerland or Penticton home ever since. Don't you for one second dare to suggest that I don't know what I'm talking about. I've lived among them, and from where I sit being a property owner is not a pre-requisite to understanding the forces at work in Summerland.

You can called them names if you like, but there has always been a prominent anti-development segment of Summerland's population. They elected this council on the same sort of anti-development mentality, although they had a slightly different face painted on it. Make no mistake, stagnation is what these people want. And lately they have more votes than the other side. It's called democracy.

[twobits]

Yes princess, I am frikken serious.

Princess? You are above that kind of trash response fluff so I am going to disregard it.

[totoramona]

Summerland has an OCP that designates current development areas. Zoning is already in place for many nice pieces of property in Summerland. If projects were proposed on those properties, it would be smooth sailing. Does Summerland not have a development officer? Our town should be promoting developments where it has already been agreed upon for them to be built. I believe the problems and rifts in the community occur when developers try to push the envelope and forge into areas that aren't envisioned for their projects, thus requiring OCP and zoning amendments. That was the case with the ill fated Summerland Hills, the prison and now Banks.

[fluffy]

Princess? You are above that kind of trash response fluff so I am going to disregard it.

Cop out.

You were rude enough to say I didn't know what I was talking about. I retaliated.

Support your argument or zip it.

[OllyV]

If projects were proposed on those properties, it would be smooth sailing.

Obviously you have not lived in Summerland long.

Rezoning and amendments are a natural part of the evolution of any community. Inflexibility when it comes to development is a sign of stagnation and should be a redflag to any residents who are young enough to require a thriving community for their long term success as residents.

Unfortunately there is a very vocal and toxic element in Summerland right now that will latch onto these guidelines (and they are just that, guidelines) to oppose everything. Just try and name a single project in Summerland, in the last two decades, that hasn't met with some sort of opposition.

Rezoning and amendments to the OCP should not be dismissed out of hat, which is what much of the NIMBY's in Summerland would have. Each application should be considered on an individual basis. Some will be improvements and some will not.

[twobits]

Cop out.

Cop out? Perhaps you would like to share what you have invested in Summerland since you were a lad living in Summerland with your parents? And Fluff, don't forget that with a name, land title records can be checked for 8 bucks. I don't want to start a pizzing match with you, but I think your pov is emotional rather than rational. It is actually a strange departure for you.

[fluffy]

Are you saying that not owning property in Summerland precludes any understanding of the people who live there? Or to take it a little further, does owning property there come with some sort of insider information? I think you're off on a tangent here, veering ever further from the topic at hand.

You use the term "NIMBY" like it's an insult, but in it purest meaning it is an adequate descriptor for many of the people in Summerland. Voting people. Enough of them to seize power. You are of course, entitled to your opinion as are we all, but the facts of the situation played out plainly in the last election. Summerland voted no-growth. I don't have to like it or even agree with it to understand it.

[totoramona]

Obviously you have not lived in Summerland long.

Just try and name a single project in Summerland, in the last two decades, that hasn't met with some sort of opposition.

I have lived in Summerland for several decades. As for projects in the last two decades - Summerland Seniors Village, Victoria Place, Summerland Waterfront Resort, The Rosedale...

Official Community Plans and associated zoning are written with input from staff, Council and the residents of the community. This is what should direct growth, not developers. Growth from the town core outward is what is envisioned and what will benefit the town most. With empty lots that could accommodate densification downtown, I do not see the benefit in approving high densities outside the town core.

[fluffy]

Growth from the town core outward is what is envisioned and what will benefit the town most.

At the risk of reopening an old wound, this is what the infamous land swap sought to accomplish, directing growth north from downtown to the natural geographical boundary of the bank between the town level and Jones Flat.

Current council engineered this into a major issue, painting it as a threat to global agriculture even though those currently using the land for agriculture could have continued to do so for as long as they wanted. People were more than happy to jump on that bandwagon and oust the Perrino council despite the good they had done for Summerland by way of upgrading both major access routes to the Main Street core, among other things. It should come as no surprise that these same people would view the Banks Crescent proposal as the same sort of threat.

Summerland is one of the few towns along Hwy 97 where that route does not pass through the downtown core, leaving it in effect, somewhat immune to the hotel/motel/fast food/big box development that has become normal for most other centers. There are a lot of people in Summerland who feel that is something worth preserving.

[Queen K]

Exactly right, and that's why keeping big development out or repressed for as long as possible is their goal.
ONE community at least needs be preserved in this Valley. One.

[shakeman]

Queen K:

“One community at least needs (to) be preserved in this Valley. One.”

Seriously?

We here in Summerland are to be nothing more than your little nostalgic magic moment? When you venture down the valley on some excursion we here in Summerland must be your little ‘Brigadoon’; your pit stop to yesteryear?

Wow!

[Queen K]

Queen K:

“One community at least needs (to) be preserved in this Valley. One.”

Seriously?

We here in Summerland are to be nothing more than your little nostalgic magic moment? When you venture down the valley on some excursion we here in Summerland must be your little ‘Brigadoon’; your pit stop to yesteryear?

Wow!

No, it's somewhere people want to live without big box stores, huge developments and in-your-face modernization. Do I stop in Summerland when I drive down there? Damn rights I do. Best of everything is there. Including that Chinese food restaurant on the main street, good food.

I hope the residents of Summerland preserve for as long as possible. And not for nothing, without the NDPs ALR, Summerland and a lot of other places would have been destroyed by now. Thank God for the ALR!

[fluffy]

I take it you’re a Summerlander shakeman. What’s your take on the subject? Or are you just here to dump on others?

[shakeman]

Queen K:

I don’t want to: ‘ live without (or rather live with) big box stores, huge developments and in-your-face modernization’. What makes you think otherwise? I have stated previously that I like our small town atmosphere...did you miss that?

And I would question your taste in Chinese cuisine but I do admit I must try that Main St restaurant again since I believe it is recently under new management. I could be wrong on that but one can hope.


Fluffy:

Yes, I am a Summerland resident...you missed that in my previous post? Twenty Seven years...a newcomer still...meaning that as a jest of course...missed that did you?

I suggested Queen K is wanting to keep Summerland in the past...yes, I most certainly did because that is exactly what she suggested.

How exactly is that ‘dump(ing) on others’? It is nothing more than trying to have a meaningful discussion here.

Explain.