Band must be consulted
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This is an open letter to Mayor Janice Perrino and Summerland councillors.
I would like to respond to your proposal to delete parts of our Official Community Plan (Section 4.2.4) in order to allow for a high-density Neighborhood Plan on Rattlesnake Mountain, just a few kilometres north of our town core.
I certainly hope that you have learned from the experience with Summerland Hills Golf Course and Housing Development, and that you will not spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars on a proposal that will never get off the ground.
Whether you accept it or not, we happen to be living on the traditional territories of the Penticton Indian Band. Our Constitution and our courts have recognized that the Penticton Indian Band has never relinquished their Aboriginal rights and title to their lands and that any development on their traditional territories require that you consult with them. We also have a commonage agreement with the Penticton Indian Band requiring consultation over this change to our Official Community Plan.
The proposal that you have made involves rezoning lands from one dwelling per every 2.5 acres to six dwellings per acre — a change that greatly alters our community plan and that involves an enormous housing density on land that was previously considered to be farm lands.
The very fact that this land proposal borders Crown lands that are the traditional territory of the Penticton Indian Band, and which they have never relinquished title to, requires that you consult with them and be prepared to submit adequate environmental, economical, cultural and historical impacts of this development on their traditional territories.
In addition, as we share the rights to our water supply with the Penticton Indian Band, you must also provide an adequate impact study on the supply of water for this development.
Mayor Perrino and councilors Hallquist and Roberge ignored this obligation while sitting as councilors on the last council, and as a result, approximately $500,000 was spent on surveys, lawyer fees, appraisals and human resources for the Summerland Hills Golf Resort — all to no avail.
Potential developers to whom this property may be sold will require that this obligation has been met.
I insist that you do what is required of you before spending another penny on this proposal — and that is to consult with the Penticton Indian Band over this environmentally sensitive proposal.
Vicki Lightfoot
Summerland
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