Quarterway Housing Project Hearing Continues

Resumption of Public Hearing

April 20 - 7:00 pm

Shaw Auditorium VICC

This is the resumption of the Public Hearing which was recessed on April 14 - 2011 which ended at 11:00 pm with many people wishing to express their opinions who had not been heard.

It is a long time since any issue in Nanaimo has generated as much public input as this one has. I don't even recall the conference centre issue being as hotly debated as this project is being. It is good to see, people actually participating in the process rather than just passively sitting by letting the bureaucracy steam roll over them with a social planning experiment.

It will require the wisdom of Solomon for Council to make the right choice here, which most likely should be a compromise of some kind as the public opposition to these two projects in such close proximity to the school is nothing less than fierce. Whether those fears and concerns are misplaced is another matter all together. Whether the city staff have simply made a first class mess of this whole project is another topic of discussion, they certainly do seem to be lacking accurate answers to peoples concerns, which does not exactly instill confidence.

There are several areas where this whole project demonstrates the lack of good planning and execution and one is the density of these units which were to be "located in small housing developments distributed across the City". There is nothing about the concentration of these units that is 'across the City' when in fact the two units causing the greatest contention are within spitting distance of the same school.

There are still far too many questions being inadequately answered by staff and reports referenced  which are purported to support claims simply don't stand scrutiny. Conflicting numbers, lack of verifiable data and much anecdotal support, simply do nothing to dismiss the distrust felt by area residents.

When councillors are asked why the heavy concentration near Quarterway school, the only answer is "that's where the city owns land, where else can we put it"; if that is an example of the planning that went into siting these buildings it is little wonder it is in the glue now.

This whole affair is turning into just one more example of a poorly handled project of considerable size and importance, not unlike a conference centre which shall remain nameless.

At the end of the day, it is a crying shame because there are many poor souls in this community who can benefit from a well run program if it can live up to the ideals held out by this one. But in the current hands, it is just becoming one huge fiasco.