Mayor raises a red flag

Dear Editor: At Jan. 10 council meeting the Penticton mayor said he wanted a new Official Community Plan (OCP), as a backbone, stick-to-it document, so council meetings wouldn’t use so much time on planning issues. Now there’s a red flag. Reminds me of the idea Coun. Max Picton offered that media questions be submitted, not at the public council meetings, but in private writings to council, to save time.The public would never hear those questions.

Is council saying, they are not having development plans presented at council meetings? How are we to know just what is being built? If your area is re-zoned, how will you know? Are you going to read the entire OCP?

Will the OCP make it easier to develop public land, get rid of public buildings, like the art gallery, or reconfigure roads, all without public consent? Will it be used to excuse unwanted development? How can we “watch dog” that and what will this town end up looking like?

The present OCP projected 45,000 people and 34,000 showed up. So just where is the problem? The problem is not overcrowding. There is an OCP and it is ignored by this council. If it’s convenient for council, the new OCP will be ignored too.

Inventory and prioritize problems with the infrastructure, then fix it. The workers from each department know what needs fixing. Add the leaking pool roof to that list. Spend taxpayers money to fix what’s broken.

The speeches have started calling for engagement on roads, parks, affordable housing and a tree canopy. Let’s hope this is handled with a better set of scruples than the past , so-called, engagement processes.

The bad taste still lingers within the collective memory. Lynn Crassweller

Penticton