I would like to present you with a petition from the residents of the Seymour
Valley which requests the removal of all clauses in the proposed Seymour Local
Plan which change the current land use designation of Riverside Terrace. Any
representation that local residents support this change are completely false.
This petition has been signed by 265 residents living in the Seymour Valley
whose signatures were collected in 3 days with the help of 10 volunteers. We
did not attempt to petition residents living in lower Blueridge to the east of
the site which have also not been notified of the proposed land use
changes. Our polling indicates that no less than 80% of residents are opposed
to the project.
The group
attempting to change the land-use designation of this property came very close
to succeeding without providing any notification to local residents. The
primary reason for this is that members of the SLP committee are not required
to work with the Seymour community associations in formulating the plan.
Events have shown that this committee can make significant land use changes
without adequately informing local residents and have also chosen to ignore
representations made by the SVCA during this summer's public input process.
The Seymour
Valley community is completely residential in it's character and has a
symbiotic relationship with the Maplewood community which provides
complementary commercial, retail, multi-family, and schooling services to our
residents. Maplewood also provides the most suitable location for supportive
care facilities and should give a high priority to this form of housing.
Given what has
just happened I would like to propose that the SLP committee be required to
obtain signatures from the chairs of the Seymour community associations
endorsing the plan prior to it being presented to council. The SVCA is
prepared to endorse the plan once the Riverside Terrace development and land
use change specified in Policy 6.3.4 have been removed.
Regards,
Bill Maurer
Chair
Seymour Valley
Community Association
604-789-2172