Garlick Offers Faint Hope

"We'll look at those items again," offers Coldstream Mayor Garlick, his quote referred to in the July 1st Morning Star (Jennifer Smith), entitled "Land Changes Harvest Criticism".

The Mayor's response followed a presentation by Coldstream Acreage Owner Association member Joel Allen, who added his voice to the growing opposition to the forced rezoning of acreages in the Coldstream Valley, many of which have been zoned RU2 for 39 years, the inception of the Agricultural Land Reserve.

While hope exists that Coldstream Council may indeed be swayed by the rezoning's opposition, confusion arises when the mayor states everything's on hold until a new planner--replacing Craig Broderick--is on board.

So what is it?  the opposition?  or the lack of a planner?

The mayor stated public input will again be sought after summer.

Again?  (The public comment period closed on March 28th of this year).
Joel and Rita Allen asked to be a delegation to present their opposition because they had been out of country during the Agriculture Plan's open house and the March 28th deadline for comments.

These comments from the public were insufficient? 
Or maybe they weren't favourable enough to Council, so a new comments period will be opened?

In the interim, the North Okanagan Regional District has issued the 75-page Growth Management Strategy, to which Coldstream and surrounding municipalities are signatories.  The eye-opener is a must read for every acreage owner here. 


Then there's Councillor Besso's oft-repeated comment "824 Coldstream parcels are in the Agricultural Land Reserve, of which 640 are under 4 hectares (approximately 9.9 acres)...we want to maintain the larger parcels."  Some confusion arises when she adds (as quoted in the newspaper) "There's a perception that there are a lot of small parcels out there.  They're actually many small parcels being farmed as one."

Huh?  Perception by whom?
Acreage owners?  or Council?
Councillor Besso is obviously talking about the Coldstream Ranch, whose myriad land titles were created ~100 years ago. Of course they're farming "as one"...it's a one-owner operation!

Faint hope nevertheless exists, all while new people are joining the Acreage Owners' Association.

"Maybe parole is what we can hope for," offers Kia.