Re: “It’s go for Sidney Gateway,” Sept. 14.
On Monday evening, my husband and I joined several hundred other residents for a special Sidney council meeting.
It was remarkable to see and hear the wealth of education and experience of some of our fellow residents. Professionals in several related fields had obviously spent many hours gathering and analyzing evidence in the fields of traffic, real-estate valuation, airport safety, planning and urban geography, to name some.
One would have expected, as many residents suggested, that council would defer voting to allow development of a strip mall at the corner of the Pat Bay Highway and Beacon Avenue. Council decided to ignore the wishes of at least 500 people who sat through five hours of presentations and to vote immediately without further consideration. Only two councillors chose to vote against the redesignation. It was clear that some councillors had made their decision before leaving home.
I congratulate councillors Erin Bremner-Mitchell and Barbara Fallot for their courage in representing the wishes of the residents of Sidney. I hope when the next election comes, residents will remember how councillors voted.
Following the construction of the Gateway Mall, our beautiful, unique seaside town will never be seen by many people driving from the ferry. They will only see another generic strip mall with drive-through restaurants and a supermarket. How sad for them.
I hope our lovely, charming town will survive the economic blow that it will suffer as a result of this decision.
Marian Marsh
Sidney
