I was surprised to see a letter (Gazette, Jan. 20) by a Mr. Ken Johnson who seems to be quite angry with me and the Friends of the St. Albert River Valley group. I don't know Mr. Johnson so I will just ask the readers to go to our Facebook page and read our Objectives statement to see if it makes sense. And if it's based on ignorance and selfishness.
One thing must be said. It's unconscionable for Mr. Johnson to insult the members of our group, without cause. I know most of them and they are good people. They are involved in the community, in charities, families and church groups and all they want is to preserve the jewel that is St. Albert's river valley, including its parks, green spaces and adjoining neighborhoods. This group is not against development of St. Albert per se. They are in fact demonstrating the finest qualities of citizenship.
Mr. Johnson is disingenuous to say that the engineers and planners have produced "evidence" that this recently approved project is worthwhile. The only evidence produced was that this property can be flipped to increase the population and taxation densities in an older neighborhood. You can search the Summary Report in vain for the benefits accruing from this project to the neighbours and residents who use the adjoining green spaces. There are none. This is all about St. Albert city council following Capital Region Board directions mindlessly and without any sober second thought. It is also about knee jerk defensiveness and name calling, which Mr. Johnson has descended into (NIMBY).
Lastly, Mr. Johnson mentions in several places that our group is all about self interest and is Braeside centric. All neighbourhood groups fighting densification are neighbourhood centric. So what? If we ask Grandin or Erin Ridge residents to join our group, they say "Oh, that's about the project in Braeside, but we don't live there and we have our own problems with city council here. But good luck."
Our short term objective became something much broader, and now that it is finalized, we still stand for protection of the river valley inside the city limits. We are not "Braeside centric" anymore.
W.G. Whitney, St. Albert
President of Friends of the St. Albert River Valley
