Editor:
Thanks goes to the Coast Reporter for asking the April 8 question of the week: “Should Gibsons sell part of the public property next to Stonehurst to the Stonehurst developer?”
If the Town’s council didn’t understand how people feel about selling the land, they know now. A vast majority, (81 per cent) of 620 people who answered, overwhelmingly voted “no.”
However, even though the huge majority doesn’t want the town to sell the property, council decided at a recent special committee of the whole meeting to continue discussions with the developer regarding the sale. Council requested a more current property appraisal with which to renegotiate the sale price. They asked the developer to resubmit new designs with different heights and more underground parking spots. The town would also need to negotiate buying back some spaces from the developer and paying for them by crediting “associated development cost charges,” aka permitting costs. Council also asked the developer to think of offering some “community amenity contributions” in exchange for being able to build their four-storey condo buildings.
Will Gibsons’s council make the proper decision to keep the terraced and treed parking lots with about 25 spaces and stop wasting their and the developer’s time? Will they stop negotiating the sale of the property and realize that not only do most of the town’s residents oppose the sale but it’s just simply a bad idea to build something like what’s being discussed on the steep School Road hill?
Denis Prevost, Gibsons
