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LETTER: Adequate costs were not presented

The Banks Crescent developer should be paying 100 per cent of all the costs for upgrades
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Dear Editor:

The Committee of the Whole Meeting was, I understood, for staff to give mayor and council members the facts and figures about how much the components of developing Banks Crescent were going to cost and what percentage of each were going to be paid for by the developer and what, if anything, should be paid by the town of Summerland, and ultimately us, the residents.

It could have been presented quite simply. Something like:

• Cost of widening Solly Road to collector status with footpaths = X dollars. Developer to pay X percent.

• Cost of strengthening Solly Road to collector status to withstand heavy construction vehicles every day for three, five or seven years = X dollars. Developer to pay X percent.

• Cost of traffic light installation at the corner of Solly Road and Latimer Avenue = X dollars. Developer to pay X percent.

• Cost of moving power poles, altering gas lines, adding sewer lines, installing extra fire hydrants = X dollars. Developer to pay X percent.

• Cost of realigning of Banks Crescent to Gillespie Road, realigning driveways to widened roads etc. = X dollars. Developer to pay X percent.

The list could go on.

Establishing that Solly Road is not currently in the master plan for upgrading tells me one thing. It is fine to service its current amount of traffic.

It would seem to me the developer should be paying 100 per cent of all these costs because without this proposed mega structure and the 2,000 extra vehicle trips, our infrastructure is adequate to service the current population of lower town.

Coun. Doug Homes, who lives in Lowertown, was forthright in saying residents in Lowertown usually go down to Lakeshore Drive if heading to Penticton. Many use the northern Latimer to get to Peach Orchard Road. Yet in this equation, the only upgrading mentioned at all was a slight widening of Solly to Latimer.

Gillespie, the second exit from this mega complex was not even mentioned. And no one can go anywhere from Gillespie without using McDonald. Was either given so much as a thought?

Nobody mentioned the cost of extra police, fire or ambulatory staff, yet we know that a certain ratio of emergency services per population is required.

The fish hatchery and its water source weren’t part of the equation either.

Lark says they have offered to build a water treatment facility. Good. But what do we really know about this plan? Even if they build it to the standard required by the hatchery, who is going to pay to oversee the running of it and who is going to pay to keep it maintained?

What we were supposed to get at the Committee of the Whole meeting was a summary of the cost of expenses verses money generated.

What we got instead was a brush-off.

Donna Wahl

Summerland