EDITOR,
Squamish city officials are doing their best to frustrate the will of elected councillors. My neighbour Michael Goodman, project manager for the Paradise Trails development, tells me they have still not been able to get the land rezoned for the project.
He says the goalposts are constantly being moved - no matter what they do to satisfy the district's demands, there is always a new request made that takes months and months to meet. It is now more than three years and three months since the plan was given third reading - which is effectively official approval - with five of the seven councillors being in favour of the project.
And that third reading came after a packed public hearing in which support was nearly unanimous.
It is difficult not to agree with Mr. Goodman when he says it is pretty strange when city officials do not follow the directions of people who are actually their "boss" - the elected members of city council. Many of us Paradise Valley residents strongly support this project because of the community benefits it is destined to bring to the valley and to all of Squamish, actually.
Mr. Goodman tells me that dealing with the District of Squamish is like tangling with a many-headed hydra - no sooner does the Paradise Trails team resolve one demand than another pops up. It appears the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. I was led to believe that some of the new councillors elected last November wanted to see change in how the district functions.
Well, they have now been in office for 2 1/2 months, so it is time to get to work, is it not? The economy is suffering here in Squamish.
Possibly our new mayor, Mr. Kirkham, should look into what the roadblocks and bottlenecks are at city hall.
Something is rotten in the way our tax dollars are being wasted, and getting so little accomplished. With its major equestrian centre at the heart of the project, Paradise Trails is a development that will bring tourism and economic activity to the recreation capital of Canada, and it should be supported.
Indeed, it is supported - at least by the local politicians and majority of the population. It is the paid officials who are holding it up.
Enough already with the petty politicking. Bureaucrats should implement the wishes of the people we elect to govern, not the other way around. An elected council spoke three years ago, and it is time city officials learn to listen or get the hell out of Dodge.
Ferdinand Vondruska
Paradise Valley
