“During the past few weeks there has been much discussion on the pros and cons of the city boundary expansion. Judging from questions and comments passing among the general public it was evident that many were somewhat confused and not too clear on the merits of the proposition as presented.

“Many felt the area encompassed was more extensive than necessary at this time. Extension of the existing city boundaries will have to come as time passes, in order to properly control an orderly development of Cranbrook’s fringe areas.”

Sound familiar in a past tense kind of way? It was written in 1960 as an editorial following a city extension bylaw. The bylaw failed.

Upon incorporation in 1905, the city of Cranbrook included approximately thirty blocks stretching from 3rd Ave. S. to 3rd Ave. N. and 1st Ave. to 14th Ave., an irregular quadrilateral shape that in 1920, by way of city election, increased to include the north side of 4th St., 16th and 17th Ave., and Baker Park. These dimensions would serve the city until 1948.

The decreased home building caused by both the Depression of the 1930s and World War II and accompanied by the influx of veterans and European refugees caused a major housing shortage throughout North America. For Cranbrook, the answer was patriotically obvious when the question of expansion came before the voting public in 1948. The plebiscite passed by a large majority — included a block of property that would soon become the site of Mt.Baker High School — and the construction of houses began, many of them employing pre-fabricated construction techniques developed during the war.

Land was soon once again at a premium and this, coupled with a petition from subdivision house-owners wishing inclusion into the city, prompted a bylaw in November, 1953, proposing a boundary extension to include property from South 4th St. to Boundary Road (11th St.) and 3rd to 11th Ave. The major drawback at the time was the layout of the existing fringe subdivisions, which failed to conform to city design and created a number of practical and aesthetic problems. These problems were simply overcome by ignoring them, and the bylaw was passed in December, 1953, by a vote of 672 to 101. The only remaining hitch was the fact that three more bylaws — sewer, water, and streets — required a further vote in order to service the newly incorporated areas. In November, 1954, 19 per cent of the eligible voters turned out and endorsed well over the three-fifths majority required and a nervous city council uncrossed their fingers. Notably this election marked the first time that spouses were allowed to vote in a Cranbrook municipal election.

The city continued to grow at a rapid rate. Each consecutive year saw large increases in construction to order to house the growing population. By 1959, city council, acting upon suggestions drawn from the first of a series of development plans, instituted the necessary process to incorporate approximately 700 acres to the south and east, effectively doubling the city in size. Here began a boondoggle that would last for the next three years. The argument came in large part between those in surrounding subdivisions that wanted in, those in the city who did not want them and farmers and dairymen in the proposed areas unwilling to lose their rural status. The issue came to a head in December, 1960, when a close vote (634 for to 513 against) failed to achieve the necessary 60 per cent majority and gave birth to the editorial quoted in the opening paragraph. Undaunted, the city remounted the campaign in 1961, circulating maps and reports, holding public forums and suggesting farm and agricultural area would be protected by zoning laws. The election held in May, 1961, saw the bylaw pass with 80 per cent of the voters in favour. Within weeks, an injunction placed on behalf of the Nomad Motel and Churchill’s Food Mart, argued that the city ignored the necessary six month waiting period between plebiscites. The matter took a year to settle in Supreme Court before finally passing in favour of the bylaw. As for the agricultural and dairy lands to the northeast suffice to say the land couldn’t have been that choice for although many buildings sprouted they have since failed to grow to any great height.

Expansion occurred in 1969, adding approximately 1,000 acres and again doubling the size of the city. Further growth in 1970 and 1971 included the Industrial

Park, lands north to the overpass, the old airport, Pinecrest, Ridgeview (south of St. Mary’s School), Brookview (16th Ave.), Confederation Park, and other property in all directions of the compass. These years marked a ‘Dark Age’ of city politics. An era of severe growing pains for the city and a period of much controversy, political unrest, accusations of ‘backroom’ dealings, land expropriation, conflicts of interest, bright ideas, and roads not taken that shall be dealt with in future issues.

Perhaps worth mentioning are the words of the late Cranbrook pioneer A.B.Smith, noted agriculturalist, and former owner of much of the present day city land south of 11th St. Arguing against southern expansion in a letter to the Courier newspaper in 1961 he stated, “Presuming the city needs to extend there is no limit to eastward extension adjacent to and beyond that called ‘Pinecrest,’ the land of which a part was once planted in an orchard by John Hutchison. He found the soil there so impervious to either roots or moisture that the trees died and any applied water was unable to enter the soil. Let that stuff be used for residential growth if needed.”