Dear North Cowichan mayor and council:
We welcome our mayor’s views about how our cogent official community plan (OCP) will steer municipal growth.
But the headline on Mayor Rob Douglas’s Nov. 2, 2024 Citizen guest column is missing one critical word: smart.
Smart growth is the key to our OCP spelling urban containment boundaries to help curb ugly sprawl while preserving ecological and agricultural lands.
Our mayor talks about densified housing in those urban containment areas but fails to indicate: if that housing is affordable for folks already living here; green features such as solar and water catchment; alternative housing models such as co-operatives, and other smart ideas.
He also dodges the dinosaur in our boardroom: public calls for limits to growth across Cowichan.
While housing is ordered by our provincial government, details about smart growth are left to local governments such as ours.
And economic development also falls under local control.
Councillors must wisely work together to follow our OCP — not developers’ demands — to balance smart housing demands with green-leaning economic activity offering jobs and tax revenues.
Anything less, and North Cowichan risks becoming Langford North.
Yours in smart growth,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan
