To the editor:
The Official Community Plan is not a legal-binding contract stated Peachland’s Mayor Cindy Fortin, Sept. 13-17 to a Capital News reporter.
Today, however, she says it is so we must change it to fight a court case.
The OCP was made more than 10 years ago and since outdated, should be changed, she said. Again true, but we were in the two-year process of changing the OCP with the input of the entire town, and she stopped that process to allow PeachTree to go through and now she wants council, alone, to change the OCP.
Can we trust their changes are in the best interest of the people for only a developer?
The mayor claims only a small vocal minority is against PeachTree, now evidence shows a full 75 per cent of the people asked are dead set against five storey Beach Avenue.
Last night the mayor quoted from public hearing inputs claiming that the building was too high then revealed it was input from the Gateway public hearing years ago, well she is correct, it was too high, it was proposed as four storeys, the community objected, the council voted for three and now we have a three-storey, successful building.
Can we trust a mayor’s decision making that has been so flip-floppy so many times?
Now she says, even if the whole town was against PeachTree, we still need change and she thinks this single development with its two illegal stories is the only way out of the Peachland’s financial woes. Two storeys are going to solve all our problems, two storeys at any cost.
We need change alright, a community involvement change to the OCP and a change in leadership. Remember this vote when you go to the polls in October.
Jackie Saunders, Peachland