To the editor:
In answer to Greta Richenbacher’s many questions on the land swap at Bridge Lake in her March 9 letter, headlined Land swap good for Bridge Lake, let me see if I can answer some of them.
The big question of why not is location, location, location! This piece of land is the last piece of Crown land on Bridge Lake. A logging company already has ribboned off both sides of Highway 24 to be logged off on this stretch of forest.
The one other undeveloped private property, which is adjacent to this strip of Crown land, has recently been purchased to be developed as well.
I have no problem with this development, which is right across the street from my house. Why? It’s because this land has been private for a long time.
Everybody understands we need development to thrive as a community, but does this mean we have to give into every development project that comes up.
Developing Heritage Island was a bad idea from the beginning. Everybody could see the real potential for an environmental disaster. (A barge bringing heavy equipment across Bridge Lake - really?)
Every year, we have a growing resident herd of deer that roam this area. Their main habitat though is the exact spot of this development.
The canopy of trees which protects them from the harsh winter conditions are about to be developed and logged until there is not enough trees to protect them.
What about the moose, the fox, etc.? They need these trees to survive.
Mr. Kenney — you make this sound as if this is personal, which it is not. I know him only through these meetings, but he seems like a decent fellow and I would not call his character into question.
If he chose to develop somewhere that made more sense, he would have my support. The problem is, waterfront is prime real estate, everybody wants it but there is not much available and we should not lose the last piece on Bridge Lake just so someone can make more money than on a subdivision not on the lakefront.
Let Mr. Kenney buy some land already private and develop that — just like the rest of the developers.
Greta, I’ve seen the development down in Chilliwack where you live and, apparently, you believed farmland and forests should be knocked down just for the sake of any development.
I moved here as a new resident 16 years ago and was welcomed into the community. What I’ve learned since is this community welcomes everybody equally, but we are just a little more cautious about what we want knocked down just for the sake of money.
If it was lots and lots of money we were after, we would move back to the land of pavement - the Coast.
Rolf Pfeiffer
Bridge Lake
