By Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star Published: July 15, 2008
Vernon’s mayor denies a charge from the Vernon Taxpayers Association that the city is being discreet in its operational style of the Hesperia Development Corporation. Wayne Lippert was reacting to a presentation by association representatives Brent Applegath and Don House, who questioned the “covert nature” of the Hesperia corporation, a city-owned group that is responsible for developing a 69-acre parcel of land in Okanagan Landing above Longacre Drive and Apollo Road. The land, which came out of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), was purchased by the city years ago to evolve into a residential development that would feature a mixture of attainable and affordable housing, green technology and have infrastructure in place to allow people to afford to live at home in Vernon. “The City of Vernon owns 100 per cent of the shares in the corporation, meaning that the shares are legally held by the taxpayers,” said Applegath, a teacher. “And yet, there is no decision on whether the city will continue to own the land after the development...”
The taxpayers say they’re deeply concerned at the secretive operational style of the corporation. “The only thing we were given was a glossy document with fluff in it about 125 attainable units of housing out of 1,000 units being built,” said Applegath. “We’re already stressing the valley with construction. As taxpayers, there are a number of issues that are coming forward. Is the development sustainable? Where will the water come from?” Lippert said the city was being anything but covert in regards to Hesperia. “I take issue with that,” said Lippert. “The meetings are held in the open, Hesperia Corporation meetings are open. The only things that are in-camera items at council and the corporation are issues that fall under the need to be in-camera, things like legal issues that may arise, or financial involvement in regards to bids or tenders. “People are free to do as they did today, come ask questions and they’ll get answers.” The taxpayers have a lot of questions they want answered by the city.
“We need to know what’s going on, who’s doing the developing, who’s making the money, where’s the money going?” said Applegath. “It’s our money being used to develop this. It’s still foggy how it came out of the ALR. Now, all of a sudden, it’s there to be developed.” Applegath concluded his presentation with a list of 12 association demands in regards to the corporation. At the top of the list, the taxpayers association is asking for a market research and business plan that proves the development is a needed, viable and a profitable operation for the citizens of Vernon. The demands also call for a compilation of input provided at a public meeting on Hesperia in May 2008, the reports submitted to council by the corporation and to know why the project is supported by council when, according to the association, it “flies in the face of the Official Community Plan and the anti-sprawl sentiment within the Vernon community and the Okanagan Valley as a whole.” Council received the list of demands from the association.
1 comment:
What does Lippert mean when he denies the charge.What does he mean that the city was beinganything but covert. This is his usual way of deceiving the public-making non sensible comments. It now appears that their are a number of questions put forward by Beardsell-does that mean that the mayor and council who had no questions already had the answers and were hiding them from the taxpayers,or does it mean they do not care,or does it mean they do not understand-especially re open and transparent!
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