A real estate developer has applied to the town to rezone an area from “small acreages” up to a much higher density.
That development proposal is fracturing our community.
Objectors to the development warn of permanent impact on a trout hatchery operation, destabilization of slopes, increased traffic and traffic noise, large expenditure on unneeded infrastructure, and a change from a bucolic rural hobby farm neighbourhood to a high density, condominium environment.
Objectors also point out that the town has already identified many areas for high density development and residential expansion in the recently updated Official Community Plan.
Proponents for the development tout short term economic benefits during construction and longer term benefits from services after construction, new residents, growth with minimal impact and then more property tax revenue.
The town responded by creating a bylaw to selectively change the hobby farm zoning. Some councillors have labelled the rezoning opponents as NIMBYs, and believe that Summerland is in desperate need of economic growth.
Real economic growth has been taking place in Summerland, but we need to be careful to use the right measuring stick to follow it.
Empty storefronts are simply an indicator that big box merchandising has permanently changed most downtowns. We see for example on the economic growth side, our Summerland Wine and Spirits industry has very quickly blossomed from two wineries in the 1990s to 24 wine, cider, brew and distillery companies. Significant business expansion has come about in Summerland but with little influence from any town economic development efforts.
There is no question that Summerland would benefit from more job-producing activity.
Summerland competes with every town and city in the Pacific Northwest of the USA and in Western Canada to attract new industry.
What exactly is it that sets Summerland apart from all those competitors that will win new or relocating businesses?
This is a very important question and the answer to that, and to the conflict at hand, is something that Summerland needs to understand and adopt moving forward.
“Emotional Attachment = Stronger Economy”
Summerland needs to take a step back and adopt a better mechanism to deal with development challenges. Summerland needs to adopt a community-wide conversation that will result in a consensus on how the town should evolve.
That conversation needs to be “translated into a blueprint that will serve as the foundation for future community decisions.”
Let’s begin to talk about community heart and soul.
This is not a concept that I invented. It is a concept that is being used to reinvigorate many struggling communities.
The strength of a community is said to lie in the hands and hearts of its citizens.
Community heart and soul is about pride and emotional attachment to our community. That starts with pride in our homes, neighbourhood and then those things that can bring us all together.
Those things that can evoke emotional attachment can be parks, lakes, trails, history, tourism attractions, our main street and markets, festivals or even famous people.
When I travel, I look for things in small towns and cities that bring people together or things that attract people and industry and sustain communities over generations.
I look for the heart of a community and I wonder what that is in Summerland.
Real measured studies have shown that when a community comes together and builds pride, personal connection, manages its town, and improves esthetics, the result is growth in the community GDP, gross domestic product.
In other words, make positive changes to certain factors and people and businesses will migrate here because they want to be associated with, and personally invested in our community.
I hope that Summerland will remove any sense of urgency, and set aside the current divisive rezoning proposal.
Don Gemmell is a long-time Summerland resident. The opinions expressed herein are personal and not those of any particular organization or business.