Editor:
The Cottage Farm project has taken us, and most Langdale residents, completely by surprise.
Alison Nixon, from West Vancouver, who has spearheaded this project in honour of her schizophrenic son, appears to have been rallying influential support and financial backing for her dream, while keeping Coast residents in the dark.
The majority of the audience attending the last-minute meeting held on Sept. 19 at Cardinal Hall expressed their concern and opposition to this project.
The Sunshine Coast is primarily a tourist destination that generates sizable revenue and job opportunities from this sector. No matter how you spin it, a facility for severely disturbed mental patients and recovering addicts will deter the tourist trade.
Ms. Nixon has also purposely ignored the short and long-term consequences her dream will have on our already financially beleaguered infrastructure from roads and ferry numbers to police surveillance and medical emergency services. Neither does she consider the safety factor posed by the proximity of such an at-risk population to our elementary school, neighbourhood park, youth camps and residents.
How will a sizeable outsider population with multiple mental, emotional and drug-related addictions and disorders affect us? How can their behaviour be predicted or guaranteed by our politicians, law enforcement agencies, by-laws or volunteer health practitioners when it is an open-door facility? Who will pay for their problems once their three-year treatment is "completed" at Cottage Farm and they settle along the Coast?
Our community voice deserves its rightful input into decisions that will be made on our behalf by our Sunshine Coast Regional District planning department, the Agricultural Land Reserve and, ultimately, our elected officials.
Lynne Doupe
Langdale
Editor's note: Coast Reporter published a front-page story on Aug. 6 outlining the project and next steps involved regarding this proposed project.
