Friday, February 11, 2011 Ridge Meadows Racer is heading to the Canada Winter Games.
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Get hooked on reading! Donna McKinnon helped her daughter Ava (left), along with Ava’s Grade 1 classmate Claudia Drzewicki with their reading Tuesday, Feb. 8 at St. Patrick’s School. See story on page A5.
Troy Landreville/TIMES
Development
Council narrows down Albion options
Monday’s workshop will feature a discussion mainly on two scenarios. Maria Rantanen mrantanen@mrtimes.com
Steve Wynnyk and his brother were for the longest time the “biggest opponents” of development of the Albion Flats, but because of development around them, they have been “squeezed out,” according to Wynnyk. The family has owned about 40 acres of farmland in the area now under consideration for development since 1948. But with the surrounding sports fields and the residential
areas above them, their land floods three to five times a year, making it unsuitable for farming, Wynnyk said. Because the family can’t farm the land, and because of the growing population, Wynnyk said it’s time to let it go for development. “It’s a natural progression based on population,” Wynnyk said. “As more people come in, it takes more to service (them).” Maple Ridge council decided at Tuesday’s council meeting not to forward the four Albion Flats concepts developed by the consultant to the Agricultural Land Commission for comment, but rather to take two of the scenarios – two and four – and work on those at Monday’s council
workshop meeting. Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin said after the meeting he was surprised council decided on those two plans because he felt they were the most “aggressive.” However, council also wants to incorporate elements from the other scenarios, he added. Daykin thought council would have accepted the offer from the Agricultural Land Commission to forward all four original concept plans to them for comment, an offer he would have favoured. The ALC is a provincial body with a mandate to protect agricultural land, Daykin said. “They have some pretty wideranging authority,” he said. Wynnyk said his fam-
ily has been working with SmartCentres, which owns land adjacent to theirs, but they have not had any discussions about selling to the company that develops shopping malls. If it is excluded from the agricultural land reserve, the family would like to develop it themselves to “get the highest and best use for the land,” he said. The Wynnyks used to grown corn for feed on their land on the Albion Flats, but that’s not been possible for the last few years because of flooding. “It’s progressively getting worse every year,” he said. At Tuesday’s meeting, Councillor Judy Dueck said council isn’t envisioning a “parking lot experience” while
developing the Albion Flats, and she wouldn’t support that kind of development. Councillor Cheryl Ashlie said she was concerned about what the burden to the taxpayer would be for some of the scenarios developed by the consultant. Ashlie said that scenario one doesn’t deliver on retail, and three would mean an investment of “huge public dollars.” Councillor Craig Speirs said he doesn’t want a “traffic magnet,” and that everyone who wants shopping now will later be complaining about traffic. Ashlie pointed out people are used to sitting in traffic looking for shopping in Coquitlam.
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