Save Our Southlands

April 4, 2009

The Century Group has decided that the best way to advance their development is through an OCP (Official Community Plan) amendment.  

This is clever in a couple of ways.

Firstly, as can be seen in the application itself (click on image above to read), they do not need to be too specific.  Instead of submitting a concrete plan for a straight up or down vote, they are asking that their general concept be endorsed.  If they meet resistance, they will say that this or that aspect of the plan is open to change, and anyway, it's just an OCP amendment and therefore not binding for anyone.

Then, if they are successful at altering the OCP, they submit the rezoning proposal.  At that time, when people come out against their plan, they say that it has already been approved through the OCP and that the time to address concerns was when the community plan was being altered.

The second thing the OCP amendment does is buy them time. 

For whatever reason, even after all the preparation that has gone on, they are not ready to develop the land.  This may be related to the global financial crisis we are currently undergoing which has shut down many a project.  If they can get the guarantee of an OCP amendment they will be able to secure more favorable financing terms. 

And with the OCP amendment, they can drag the decision making process over many months, making opposition more difficult because there will never be a solid target to oppose.  Instead, we'll have months of committees and statements of principle, lulling us to sleep with the monotonous noise of bureaucracy.

So our job in the coming months will be to stay awake and aware, to say no to the needless destruction of farmland and no to the overpopulation of Tsawwassen.