The City Council meeting Monday (Nov. 2nd) was fascinating, hearing the impassioned pleas of the YES folks for some 90 minutes. There were four delegations, including one by the ex-Mayor, who has a lot of interest in this, and one glitzy show-and-tell by the former Chamber of Commerce President, and two others that seemed similar.

The Council's “summing up” included more of the same by most members and the Mayor. The Mayor got himself off the hook of his previous “No new taxes” promise for maintaining services to this forthcoming area (being taxed for 20 years at a low rural rate), by outlining the need for imminent hefty tax increases for current services. Rarely has so little been said by so many for so long.

The YES group predicts gloom and doom if the vote is WHOA. Their arguments consist of: a) How can two Mayors and most of City Council, Chamber of Commerce and business owners be wrong over two years? b) An exploding population (currently 1%/year) is imminent, c) Unregulated and rapid uncontrolled development of the “Cranbrook on the Hill” will occur outside our current current boundary, d) the current landowners are “good people” with our best interests at heart and have altruistically presented an “incredible opportunity” plus a gift of free land, e) all citizens of Cranbrook will prosper financially if the boundary is extended and the WHOA side should be repudiated for implying otherwise, f) we must have these 9,000 acres for our children (the recurrent mantra) and g) ignore the WHOA buttons of the fear-mongering Negative Nellies.

Other issues not being hammered are: a) Failing to optimally plan and regulate development at Wildstone and Shadow Mountain, b) YES means increasing the area of responsibility for current taxpayers, c) Not waiting for the Growth Management Plan to become public before expansion c) Facilitating the approval process for realtors and builders, so they do not have to jump through the hoops presented by the RDEK.

It is implied that we are at a critical crossroad and there can be no turning back from this landslide, presented as a “done deal” by the previous Mayor two years ago, and in a true democracy citizens should agree to what is presented to them by elected officials. The YES group could minimize their aggressive ad campaign and threatening, feisty rhetoric and stop accusing the WHOA folks of lies and untruths, because citizens may think they fear giving up more than our children's future. The CLC, other citizens and one Councilman suggest that citizens stop and think, gather data and be involved in growing Cranbrook in a unified and logical fashion, and what's wrong with that?

Jack Loeppky,

Cranbrook

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