The Chilliwack
Progress Wednesday
13
3
22
Music
Weather
Football
A celebratory salute to Joseph Haydn.
October sets 120-year record.
Grizzlies the hammer and Panthers the nail.
Scene
News
Sports
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • W E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 4 , 2 0 1 5
Safeway rezoning driven by city hall
■ H ALLOWEEN M AGIC
FVRD rejects Tamihi Creek power project Benefits not justified, board decides
Jennifer Feinberg
Jessica Peters
The Progress
The Progress
Continued: SAFEWAY/ p5
Local magician Damien Carriere captivates a group of children during a special Halloween performance at the Kilby Historic Site on Saturday. GREG KNILL/ PROGRESS
Jennifer Feinberg The Progress She was the undisputed matriarch and passionate founder of the organic farming world in Chilliwack — and across B.C. Mary Forstbauer, passed away Friday night at CGH after a prolonged illness.
ALLERGIES? PLUS PST
Continued: FVRD/ p4
Forstbauer was ‘embodiment’ of organics world She was 66. The well-loved farmer, wife and mother of 12 children and many grandchildren, is being remembered with tremendous appreciation and affection from family, friends, and the organic community for her kind ways and dedication to fresh organic food for decades.
European Made & Designed
Retail 85¢ Box $1.00
The Fraser Valley Regional District is not supporting a planned run of river project at Tamihi Creek. The board has notified the province of its nonsupport through a letter to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. The FVRD board wrote that its decision was based on “strong community input.” The board is also seeking clarification from the ministry “as to how it can justify the trade‐offs for hydroelectricity in such environmentally sensitive and recreationally rich areas for more costly hydro that does not appear to be needed with the decision to build Site C.” The Tamihi Creek power project is being proposed by WindRiver Power Corporation, and an open house was held at Tzeachten Community Centre in early October. That was the first public, detailed look at the proposal. The $50 million plant would generate 15 megawatts of electricity that would then be sold to BC Hydro. The plan has been in the works for more than seven years, and still requires provincial approval. The plan calls for construction of a dam near the headwaters of the creek that would divert a portion of the water flow to a pipeline that would run adjacent down stream. The water would drive a hydro electric turbine at the base of the pipeline before being returned to the creek. Transmission lines would then carry the electricity to BC Hydro lines in the Chilliwack River Valley. If the government decides to push ahead and
ULTRA ONE ELECTROLUX VACUUM • Certified Sealed True Hepa Filtration System
$
NOW W
79999
• 7 Year Warranty Parts & Labour • 90 Day “Love Your Vacuum” Guarantee*
* If you don’t like your new vacuum, receive a full refund.
WAS $999 999
“People want to know where their food is coming from and how it is grown,” Forstbauer told The Progress in 2012. The tributes are already pouring in. “The organic food movement in B.C. has just lost one of its most important and long standing founders,” wrote Kate Sutherland.
“Mary Forstbauer has been at the beginning of key organizations like the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets and COABC. “She has been wise, smart, tireless, creative, passionate and effective in her efforts. She has also been generous and kind, and by turn forceful and persistent.” Continued: TRIBUTES/ p6
SOUTHGATE S O VACUUM JANITORIAL SUPPLY
#35-45905 YALE RD., SOUTHGATE MALL
604-792-2344
06/15W_SV24
There is some obvious activity these days on the old Safeway block at Main and Kipp. A rezoning notification sign has gone up and the building is coming down in preparation for the longawaited redevelopment. What is different, however, is that the rezoning scheduled this week at city hall is not applicantdriven, but rather Chilliwack council itself is spearheading the zoning changes — almost pre-emptively. It’s a deliberate effort to make the zoning dovetail with vision of the Downtown plan in the Official Community Plan. Council will consider rezoning of the entire block, with multiple properties going from commercial, to high-density multi-family residential, and commercial, as well as a CD (comprehensive development) zoning, at the public hearing set for Tuesday night. Whoever eventually buys the property will have the option of rezoning again, should they decide to, or stick to the downtown vision of increasing residential zoning with higher density R6 streetfront, and commercial at the streetfront level. It is “a bit unusual” for council to take the bull by the horns in this way, Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz told The Progress. “But we never had a situation like this in Chilliwack, where a key downtown property is basically abandoned the way this one was,” she said. Many are ready to see the old storefront come down, and anticipate it might kickstart more development. The entire block was singled out