North Cowichan - Re: North Cowichan and the floodplain village On Feb. 26, North Cowichan and Duncan unveiled their plans for development of the University Village floodplain. Once again, North Cowichan council and staff are demonstrating their poor leadership and decision making by proposing to develop high-density residences in what it calls University Village, knowing full well it is a floodplain.
There is an old adage: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.So, why would our council support building high-density homes in an area that is earthquake and flood prone? Have we not learned from the recent flood experiences in other cities such as Calgary, Fukushima, New Orleans, New York and our own town in 2009? The last thing we should be doing is increasing the density in a disaster-prone area. A catastrophic event in the floodplain would cause needless misery for those living there.It would also place taxpayers in jeopardy of being liable for this bad decision made by council and staff.The city of Calgary has been buying back their flood damaged homes and converting them to parkland to limit future liability. We have an opportunity to avoid this needless waste of taxpayer dollars.Our council just can't seem to make the right decisions. As concerned citizens we should be replacing these councillors this November with responsible decision-makers.Don SwiatlowskiNorth Cowichan