The city is advertising to lease the former hovercraft base site for some limited commercial purposes. There are several considerations to such a proposal.
Where are the customers supposed to park? We can hardly expect them to park by the old arena and walk! I suppose we can enhance the park by chopping down the trees and enlarging the parking lot at the hover pad.
Assuming that many of the facility’s patrons will be using sail boards and so on, at low tide they would have to carry their equipment over the very rocky beach out beyond the gravel bank. Is the $5 million insurance adequate?
Or are there plans to dredge a channel to the site? As the seaward bank at the site has eroded about 20 feet in the past ten years, does the bank need reinforcing? If so, how much will such work cost the taxpayers?
One wonders if this is the first step to reviving the proposal for a marina at that site. That idea was not popular with the majority of residents and it was denied by council at least twice.
There has been no consultation on this new proposal for developing the hovercraft base site.
Perhaps our planners should consult their dictionaries on the definition of a park. It is not necessary to build on any open ground and pave over the spaces in between. Some citizens even enjoy the open air and green spaces.
W.H. Atwood
Parksville