Abbotsford’s Official Community???? Plan

8/2/2016

Source - City of Abbotsford

By Lynda Richard - It has been a month since the Abbotsford City Council meeting held at the Matsqui Auditorium on June 20th, 2016 and adopted the revised Official Community Plan (OCP) that replaced the 2005 Abbotsford OCP. Although those involved in developing the plan had much praise for their own efforts and the large percentage of public input, many of us in the outlying areas of Abbotsford were unaware that the process was even taking place. Some people I spoke with did not even know what the initials OCP stand for.

The numbers quoted at the meeting added up to about 6% of Abbotsford residents taking part in the feedback process. Many of us do not receive the local paper on a regular basis (delivery can be sporadic) and many do not read online. That June 20th council meeting was the final chance for input from the public regarding the adoption of a new Official Community Plan (OCP). The plan, though generally acceptable in content, did include at least one unacceptable proposal, and that is the lands located in the proposed west Bradner Industrial Park as a study area for future industrial use.

Unfortunately, many people, including some of council, were fooled by the words “study area.” They believe that “study area” denotes an area that can be studied and decided upon at a later date as to whether or not the land should actually be used as an industrial park. However, in a meeting prior to council’s meeting, Mark Neill, head of Planning for the City of Abbotsford, was quite forthcoming with his plans to push for industrial zoning for the west Bradner lands. His said he would not waste his time or the city’s money on a “study area” unless he fully intended to “turn those lands purple”, the colour on the OCP that denotes industrial lands. This was pointed out during the public input portion of the June 20th meeting, and Neill did not refute any statements in this regard.

According to an article in the June 22nd issue of the Abbotsford News, 140 people attended the meeting with about 30 people speaking. The vast majority of speakers while endorsing the plan in general, voiced concerns over the designated “study areas.” In particular, most of the concern centered around the West Abbotsford Industrial Park. The speakers voiced concerns over already over-taxed roads bursting with traffic; accessibility; the ability of the roads to handle increased semi-truck traffic; the proposed on/off ramp at Lefeuvre (who will pay has not been determined) noise; industrial pollution; water supply; and most importantly, the destruction of viable farmland. The odd speaker who was in support, either did not live in the area (so were uninformed) or were ALC exclusion applicants who are anticipating a large financial windfall should the industrial plan go through. The other speaker who spoke in favour was Chris MacCauley who identified himself as president of the Vancouver chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Assoc. He voiced concerns regarding lack of industrial land and spouted stats regarding the lack of industrial land in the lower mainland. He sounded very credible and official, unfortunately, he was not credible enough to identify himself to those in attendance as being in collaboration with the developer (Ron Emerson) and that he has been working for him throughout this entire process.

Image Source - City of Abbotsford video still abbotsford.ca/OCP

The OCP has now been approved (June 27th council meeting) and it will be up to our vigilant residents to keep the pressure on council not to move ahead with plans to turn a large chunk of our community into an industrial park. The full OCP can be found online here.

It is so sad to see this assault on our historic community. Each year the Mayor, Councillors, MLA’s and MP’s arrive at the Bradner Flower Show at the Bradner Community Club Hall and rave about the sense of community, how beautiful our area is and how historic and special Bradner is. Then they set about dismantling it for the benefit of a few dollars.

Mayor Braun and the Abbotsford First slate received the support of Bradner residents in large part because they believed the candidates were in favour of helping to preserve our farms, agricultural land and our country life. Now that they are in office they have completely changed their tune.

Almost all of the OCP deals with the downtown core, with very little dedicated to the future of what used to be known as The Country in the City. The only real changes that will come to any of the rural areas in Abbotsford are changes that will destroy the very nature of our way of life. If we continue to destroy our farmland for monetary gain, where will our food come from? What will we eat? Where will we live?

Bradner's hear the words "Abbotsfwd", "City in the Country" and statements like the "supporting of a ‘city of centres’.... including a City Centre, Urban Centres, and Neighbourhood Centres" - loud & clear... this is where the City's values lie, and its got nothing to do with us, the lives we live, the strong community bonds we enjoy, and the food on your dinner plates"!
- Heather Lemieux, Bradner Barker Editor