When the Salt Spring Coffee Company brought an application to the Islands Trust last year to rezone a piece of property near Ford Lake for a new coffee-roasting facility, I knew immediately that their proposal would present real challenges for our community. It has certainly done that.

From the Local Trust Committee’s perspective, it was easy to see that many people would think we should never allow an industrial operation in a residential neighbourhood so near a protected watershed, and others would think it would be utterly wrong to turn down such a “green” proposal that would provide much-needed island jobs and income.

One day last week I received a pretty vituperative e-mail from a couple who accuse me of lunacy for killing off all those jobs. It came in about two hours before another e-mail that informed me I was stupid to allow them to build there. Though their perspectives were entirely different, at least they were united in their assessment of my brainpower.

I don’t intend to debate the merits of the coffee company’s proposal in the pages of the Driftwood, and though it’s tempting, neither will I confront the inaccuracies, spin, and insults the company has already published. If that’s their idea of good corporate communications, they went to a different school than I did. I also don’t want to challenge the paper’s editorial views or those of its columnists; they have their own agendas.

What troubles me is the way discussion of the company’s application has descended into personalization and attitudes that entirely leave aside the merits or demerits of the proposal. Several people have told me they won’t buy coffee there anymore because they don’t like what the company is trying to do. I think that’s wrong. They tell me stories about employee relations and company behaviour that are vindictive, usually based on rumour and completely irrelevant to my consideration of the application.

I also get comments from supporters of the proposal, running down people who live near the proposed location, challenging their commitment to the environment, questioning their ethics, lifestyles and opinions. These, too, are unfair, uncalled for, and unhelpful. They do nothing to move us forward.

In case anyone’s wondering, even though I honestly have not made up my mind about this application, I have nothing but admiration and respect for my colleague Christine Torgrimson for the intelligent and thoughtful way she has considered this proposal, for the countless hours of work she has put into it and for her courage in making her views clear.

I don’t know what decision the Local Trust Committee will make, and it obviously won’t be popular no matter which way it goes. But that decision will be based on careful consideration of the best information we can get, and the weighing of broader community interests with legitimate local neighbourhood and environmental concerns.

One way or another, we will carry on as a community, and in my opinion, to allow ourselves to become so worked up and divided over one controversial proposal has consequences more serious than the outcome of the proposal itself, no matter which way it goes.

GEORGE EHRING,

Salt Spring trustee