Re: Parksville adds 97-acre wetland (The NEWS, Sept. 21).
For several weeks now I’ve been thinking about park land here in Parksville as I decide daily where to take a walk. Yes, you can walk along the highway on the new trail, or you can go to Rathtrevor (park) and fight the summer tourists for a spot to park.
Up here in the Wembley Mall area the city has taken away all prospect of parkland and have given permits to developers to rip the land apart and add more housing. Not a bad tax base, but what about parkland?
I take offense as well to “future generations,” which means you will let it sit there and not develop it into a park for some time, if ever. Since you didn’t give the Ermineskin Cree Nation any notion to go forward with development for years the city would not issue them a permit, it seems only natural that you finally ground them down to sell the land to Parksville.
I think the mayor seems to do whatever he likes without any regard to the residents of the city other than build more of those houses for those nice rich folks from the mainland, for all those tax dollars. Have you ever thought about using that money to make this town more appealing? It’s run down and has no appeal to a tourist or local.
Shop local, you say, but where? Most of the business in town has closed and what is open isn’t open long enough or on Sunday for a tourist. They have to hike to Qualicum Beach to get the real feeling of a beachside town, and what a cute town it is. Can we have cute, too?
Nancy Jones
Parksville