CVRD allowing car-based sprawl
Dear CVRD directors:
It’s alarming to read about the sharp upward curve of CVRD-issued building permits detailed in the May 26, 2022 Citizen newspaper.
All Cowichanians must ask who is controlling this growth under what official community plan.
If regional areas do not have updated OCPs, nor any OCP, it’s high time they create one because profit-driven developers are steadily building Langford North in Cowichan, seemingly with our board’s blessing.
Rampant, creeping sprawl is unnecessary, expensive and destructive.
One need only look at our south end’s felled trees and vast moonscapes ready for car-based sprawl — while, for starters, water and sewage-treatment utilities across our valley are in continual, costly crises, according to a CVRD consultant’s report.
Water and waste issues are sadly coupled with habitat loss; traffic jams; strains on public services such as schools and hospitals, plus vehicular, light and noise pollution.
That is not smart nor green growth; it’s uncontrolled sprawl at local taxpayers’ expense.
A CVRD limits-to-growth study, including realistic population ceilings, is tragically long overdue before we are annexed by Langford.
Yours in smart growth,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan