Fighting against a park? Not exactly...

Dear Mayor & Council,

By this point a number of people have written to you with concerns about the park, most of which I share there are over 40 letters that I could have happily co-signed. I won’t reiterate all the points here because, as you know, they are many.

It’s a weird situation to be in: “fighting against a park” But what I want you to understand very clearly is that none of us are fighting against a park we are fighting to preserve the viability of our community as a place to live, raise children and, for those who need to, commute to the city for work We are fighting for both a natural ecosystem and a human one

This is an island, with only one way in and one way out, funnelled by the triple-bottleneck of Horseshoe Bay, the

Ferry, and our small Cove Everything that happens on this island affects us all, and we exist in extreme dependence on that little bottleneck If it doesn’t function, we don’t function

I have been reading, with interest, “Measuring and Managing Park Carrying Capacity,” the UBC Report prepared for Deanne Manzer of Metro Parks in August 2020. A number of people have quoted from it in reference to problems surrounding parks But what I took from it was quite different It is a guidance document; one that perhaps you have adopted in its recommendations for how to proceed in park development

And I noticed something very odd: it talks a lot about visitor experience and the three “ core capacities” of Environmental, Social (visitor experience) and Managerial, with a nod to “Cultural capacity” which specifically