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LETTER: Rain gardens are fine; wasted tax dollars are not

Thank you to David James ( Rain gardens part of urban rainwater runoff solution , The NEWS, Nov. 28) for your comments on the rain garden and I respect your environmental commitment.
9610961_web1_170426-PQN-M-PQN-Letters

Thank you to David James (Rain gardens part of urban rainwater runoff solution, The NEWS, Nov. 28) for your comments on the rain garden and I respect your environmental commitment.

I, too, have a staunch environmental commitment. I also have a staunch commitment against wasted tax dollars.

Whereby I agree with rain gardens for new, roofed-over, gutter-to-gutter, poorly-planned developments, there has never been a flood at Memorial and West Crescent in my 57 years living in Qualicum Beach.

All rainwater runoff to that point comes from an area fully developed for the past 40-70 years, with no or little increase in hard surface development. In fact, a bare land lot in that rainshed area is rare and was built out long ago.

Also a fact is that the properties in that area are larger, well-planned in the 1950s and ’60s, and were left with sufficient green space for water retention that is proven to work well, even in the more extreme rainfalls we experienced in the early 1980s.

It is truly a waste of taxpayers’ money where no problem existed before.

Brian Jenkins

Qualicum Beach