Letter to Morning Star Editor

As for the letter writer in the Sunday Morning star, who said, “The view (Aberdeen fields) will not be diminished with the construction of playing fields and a track oval” who is she kidding?

When you can no longer see the night sky because it is lit up with the lights from 5 playing fields (number proposed to be lit) or you can not have a conversation in your home, because there is a rock concert or music blaring or have to listen to announcements my quiet enjoyment of my acreage is ruined. Not to mention my ability to work from my home. This complex will be ugly. It will be noisy. It will increase the traffic in front of my home. It will devalue my property. And I will be first in line to remove my land from the ALR if this proposal goes through. It will be the only way to recoup the lost property value due to this complex.

But, outside the reasons why I don’t want this in my backyard, this proposal is a waste of tax payer’s money. It is the wrong location for a park – because it is prime agricultural land. We already have Kalamalka Provincial Park and Coldstream in general has more parks per population than Vernon. What we are missing is the neighborhood parks in new residential areas like Middleton.

It is the wrong location for sports tourism – which should be by hotels and services. We already have a sufficient number of sports fields and considerable capacity with school fields if we simply invest to maintain them better and provide a few amenities. We need to invest money in the parks we have. Polson Park is a perfect example. I gave several suggestions as to how we could turn this into a beautiful destination park when I worked with the DVA. Instead, it has been deteriorating from lack of investment and lack of use. Let’s get the full value out of our parks and recreation tax investment, by investing wisely. Let’s send a clear message to GVS to go back to the drawing board and do the job right.

Terri Jones

Funtastic's Role in the Aberdeen Sports Complex - Press Release to All Media

On Funtastic’s web site they state their mission as: “Funtastic envisions building 6 more ball fields to replace aging fields at Kin Race Track and compliment fields that are located on leased land at DND. The 6-8 fields would be part of a bigger field complex that would be a multi sport facility with permanent facilities (including larger washrooms, concessions, a building for officials and organizers, covered grandstands, dugouts, covered stage and clearly laid out parking). This is almost the identical list proposed by GVS for the Aberdeen sports complex. The new facility would become the ideal location to host tournaments (lists different ones) and outdoor events (including music performances, plays and outdoor festivals).”

Note the GVS application proposes 6 new slo-pitch / fastball fields. GVS stats show that these sports are used almost exclusively for adults. The connection to Funtastic is clear. They need more fields to host an even bigger tournament. The actual GVS application states, “The Group (Funtastic) hopes to build Funtastic Place in Vernon, a major slo-pitch tournament facility” (page 60 GVS application). This vision is what rings true with this application – not a community park where people can have whatever they want.

Excerpt from Andy Danyliu, president of the Coldstream Rate Payers Association regarding this question:

The tax payers of Greater Vernon have searched the minutes of GVSC meetings to try to help us find out why GVSC would want to commit tens of millions of tax dollars to purchasing farm land in Coldstream to build a "Sports Complex" when their own consultants report stated there were more than enough playing fields already in their inventory.

The probable answer comes in the form of minutes from a 2005 meeting held in May where GVSC agree to "partner" with Funtastic to acquire a stadium and other facilities to further the "Funtastic' music festival and Slo pitch tournament events.

Gary Corner chairman of GVSC was forced by the Agricultural Land Commission to present the commission with an endorsement from Coldstream Council to convert 118 acres of farmland into a "Sports Complex" before the commission would consider GVSC's request. The citizens of Coldstream and Greater Vernon were unaware that Corner and the GVSC had a year earlier tried to push this proposal through the ALC.

The GVSC thought they could push through their request for removal and or change of use of 118 acres of prime agricultural land without any input from the tax payers who would eventually foot the bill.

When the Council of Coldstream permitted public input the Funtastic spokes persons argued that their activities would bring millions of "sports tourist dollars" into their coffers which they in turn would contribute back into the community through more sports fields. Plans reluctantly presented by GVSC showed a mega stadium, giant parking lots and other convention style facilities.

When it became obvious even to hard core tourist dollar developers that the people of Coldstream were not going to accept the mega sports complex it evolved into green parks space being touted by amateur sports coaches with the "Funtastic reps" taking a back seat in the debate.

The CRA as do most informed residents of greater Vernon remain convinced that the 118 acres of prime agricultural lands will become the "partnership" site for future "Funtastic Place" slo pitch tournaments, special events and music festivals and evolve into the giant entertainment center that the economic development, through sports tourism backers in the GVSC, have always desired.

The GVSC must repudiate the notion that this space will become "Soft Ball City" and detail the exact proposals and accompanying costs and reveal any attendant partners they have waiting in the wings.

When people are asked to spend thousands of dollars to vote and not given precise facts for voting, no one is served!

Andy Danyliu
Pres. CRA


Jason Gilbert, Executive Director of Funtastic was quoted as saying, “Everybody wants the best for the community it would just be nice if everyone worked together”. (Morning Star, Nov. 9th, page A3). If Funtastic, VOSC and GVS really want what is best for the community and want to work together, why not ask the general public what they want first, then draw up a plan, then find the appropriate land and then go to referendum? Given the opposition and the suggestion that there are scaled down plans and revised drawings, why not pull the original application, make the modifications, put a proposed price tag on the project, sell it to the public and then submit it to Coldstream for approval? Instead they have pushed through a proposal that is not about the general community but about the sports community, a little bit about kids but primarily adults and not about local needs but sports tourism opportunities.

Finally, have we forgotten to ask what the vision for the Coldstream is? Jason Gilbert, executive director of Funtastic said, “I truly believe that the Coldstream residents want this to Happen” (Morning Star, Oct. 12,). The Funtastic web site says, “the number one issue for the citizens is having more green space.” Wrong. According to the last Coldstream referendum 88% of the respondents stated that preserving ALR agricultural land was one of their top three priorities. The other two were, managing rapid population growth and preserving environmentally sensitive areas (Coldstream OCP Pg.5). This proposal brings to mind all three of these priorities. There is an environmentally sensitive water course through this property. This is one of the best and largest pieces of ALR farm use land in BC and planning or managing rapid population growth is at issue.

If Coldstream residents still hold to these three priorities the outcome at the upcoming referendum will be a resounding NO.


Press Release Contact: Terri Jones, spokesperson for the Greater Vernon Advocates Committee. 545-6405 home. 550-0338 Cell phone.
www.complexfacts.com

David Suzuki takes aim at VOSC Petition to the District Of Coldstream - Press Release to All Media

On September 11th, the District of Coldstream Council voted No, to the request by Greater Vernon Services to send a letter of support to the ALR to change the land use on the Spicer land from farm use to non farm use for the purpose of a sports complex / park.

Shortly after that, the Vernon Outdoor Sports Committee submitted a petition to Coldstream Council in support of GVS’s application. As a result of this petition, Coldstream council decided to go to referendum.

This petition was misleading. The petition stated that, “We support the building of a new outdoor complex at 9235 Aberdeen Road that includes “fields and green space for everyone.” The petition listed the various fields that would be included as well as “trails and pathway throughout the proposed site including 4.3 km of the Grey Canal Trail”. Those who signed the petition did not have to be from the Coldstream and could be under 19.

The Grey Canal trail application is on a different property from the land proposed for the sports complex. The petition gave the impression that these two applications were tied together. The petition said, “Green space for everyone”, but the actual proposal for the Aberdeen site which had already been submitted in July did not have green space identified for the general public. There are only fields for outdoor sports users and the facilities that go along with it.

There were a number of errors on this petition where people listed Coldstream as their address, but in fact they resided in Vernon. There were also duplicate signatures. But, the most interesting signature came purportedly from David Suzuki himself.

Louise Christy with the Coldstream Ratepayers Association just happened to go to university with David Suzuki and decided to contact David about his signature on the petition. David sent back a hand written reply that read:

“To whom it may concern: I was stunned to see a petition for Recreation and Green space in Vernon that bore my name at the top. It is such a joke because whoever signed my name misspelled it and my Foundation. I do not sign petitions in any case. I hope the citizens of Vernon are informed about this hoax. It certainly raises questions on the credibility of this group.” Signed David Suzuki, on David Suzuki Foundation letterhead.

Credibility is a very important issue. The Vernon Outdoor Sports Group and Funtastic have continued to soft sell the mega sports complex to the public as a community park. They continue to say the park will have walking, biking, green space and community gardens with some sports fields. The voters can only rely on what is actually submitted within the application form by GVS to the District of Coldstream.

That application form and proposal outlines a mega sports complex with 15 sports fields, stadium, offices, storage, washrooms, change rooms, banquet hall, sound system, 1,000 parking spaces, etc. Basically all of the items listed on Funtastic’s web site under their mission to create a multi-sport facility. The GVS application says that Funtastic wants to build “Funtastic Place” a major slo-pitch tournament facility. (Page 60 GVS application – File no. 07-020-ALR). The vision is for sports tourism not a community park.

VOSC has said the plans have been scaled down and changed, but no changes have been made to the actual application form, nor have these claims been substantiated by GVS. GVS has given no cost analysis and no cost guarantees, because they say they don’t know what will actually end up in the “park”. Perhaps they should figure that out, before a referendum vote.

It should be noted that the Greater Vernon Master Parks Plan does not call for a new Athletic park for many years into the future. It reads on Page. 9, “If the park function was removed from either property (DND and Marshall field resources), the GVRPD would need to replace the site with land that could serve as an athletic park. ALR land would likely be required to meet that need.” Neither of these resources has been removed.

GVS and Funtastic have made comments suggesting that DND resources are not secure because they cannot get a long term lease. They use this rationale to justify the need for this new sports complex. However, Terri Jones, who was employed for the past year as Executive Assistant to our Member of Parliament and had worked with DND on land use requests, refuted this argument. “DND is by law only able to issue 1 year leases. That does not mean that DND field resources are not secure.” “DND has no intention of cancelling their field leases to GVS.” Terri had in fact called Mike Harrison at DND in Chilliwack to confirm that this was still the case and was told yes it was and that they would even entertain the possibility of expansion.

The credibility of the proposal for a mega sports complex is at issue because:

1. The general public hasn’t had any input into the plan
2. The public has not been given all of the facts
3. There is a soft sell campaign to make the proposal appear as a community park, yet the typical community park attributes such as walking trails, bike paths and picnic areas do not exist on the actual sports complex proposal.
4. VOSC and Funtastic keep making claims that the plan has changed, but GVS has not substantiated these claims or made any changes to the application submitted to Coldstream Council.
5. There is no official plan, no cost analysis and no cost guarantees. Voting Yes, is voting yes to a blank cheque.
6. Coldstream residents need to know that if this application is approved they will have only 1 vote in 6 on GVSC to determine what actually happens to the development of this site.
   
   
   Contact:
   Terri Jones, spokesperson for the Greater Vernon Advocates Committee545-6405 home; 550-0338 cell.

Coldstream Referendum - Facts vs. Fiction - Press Release to All Media

Jason Gilbert, Executive Director of Funtastic sends out e-mail appeal for votes. (See attached) Greater Vernon Advocates Group question the claims made in this e-mail.

E-mail claim:
1,200 Coldstream residents play soccer

Facts:
The GVS application, pg. 66 says that according to the Dec. 2005 stats there were 2,000 youth soccer players and 700 adult soccer players = 2700 soccer users.

If 1,200 are from the Coldstream, which has 18% of the Greater Vernon population (9,465 people), the Coldstream has a whopping 44.4% of the players.

The North Okanagan Youth Soccer Association stats say there are 2,223 youth soccer players (likely more recent stats).

If 1,200 of the total 2,223 are from the Coldstream it would mean that 53% of all soccer players come from the Coldstream.

According to the 2006 Census, Coldstream only had 2,090 youth aged 5 to 19. If 1,200 of them are playing soccer that means 57% of all kids in the Coldstream are registered in the Soccer league.

We all know these stats cannot be correct.

E-mail claim:
Coldstream only has 1 regulation sized field.

Fact:
We are not sure how many regulation size fields there are in Coldstream, but we do know this:

• There are 4 soccer fields at Creekside Park, 2 at Coldstream Elementary School, 5 at Kidston Elementary School and 1 at Lavington Elementary School. (There is one extra soccer field in Lavington that only has one goal post. They have been lobbying GVS to replace the other one for a long time with no response.)
  
• They have the capacity for approximately 240 players per use (12 fields x 2 teams @ 10 players for each team. With 1 use per weekday evening and 5 uses on Saturday, the fields can accommodate 2,400 players per week. (240 players x 10 uses per week).
  
• Therefore even if there were 1,200 Coldstream players – Coldstream fields alone could accommodate them all.
  
• Young kids do not need a regulation size field. There are lots of schools that do not have regulation size gyms, or courts. That does not mean kids can’t play the sport properly.
  

E-mail Claim:
Coldstream has not built a playing field in 20+ years.

Fact:
Coldstream has 27% of the sports fields of Greater Vernon with only 18% of the population. Why do they need to build more fields?

E-mail Claim: “we are MAXED out for field space.”

Fact:

GVS application (pg. 60 & 61) state there are 51 sports field in Vernon. 17 are in parks and 34 are in school fields. ‘Vernon has a sports field supply of 1 for every 996 people.’ “This is a very high supply.” “Using a conservative estimate…. The field use in relation to capacity is 43% for school fields and 73% for fields in parks.” The estimate is conservative because it only counts capacity to 3 pm on Saturday – and everyone knows that teams play into the evening during the spring, summer and fall as well as on Sunday which is not counted in at all.

Lavington resources have also been totally left out of the stats.

Contact:
Terri Jones for more information. Home phone: 545-6405. Cell Phone: 550-0338
Greater Vernon Advocates Committee spokesperson.

Coldstream Referendum – Facts vs. Fiction. 2nd Installment - Press Release to All Media

The Vernon Outdoor Sports Committee has started their telephone canvassing blitz. Unfortunately, right out of the gate there is misinformation being presented. When working with volunteers, there is the potential that some canvassers may not have the true facts, have misinterpreted the facts or embellish information to get a vote.

It is important however to correct false information and ensure the truth is being told. One case in point came from a phone canvasser for the VOSC last night. This is how the conversation went:
Tonight my husband Paul and I (Paul and Louise Christie) received a phone call from a female “YES” campaigner. When I told her she was calling the wrong person, as I was a solid “NO” voter, she politely asked, “May I ask why?”

I of course, said that it’s just wrong to use prime agricultural land like the Spicer block for the purpose of a mega sports complex. Before I could go on any further, she interrupted me and said something to the effect that, I should know that the land has been slated for development for a long time and that it will just go to housing if we don’t put a park there and that the ranch owners have said they are willing to consolidate parcels of the ranch.

At this point I put the speaker phone on and asked her to repeat what she had said. She did so. Then Paul asked her where she had heard that. There was a pause. Then Paul said something to the effect, that he is a member of the Coldstream Advisory Planning Committee and that the members were told that the ranch ownership was not interested in consolidation. Further, he said that if she didn’t know what she had said to be fact, she was being deceitful and shouldn’t be telling people that.

There was dead silence for at least 5 seconds, then she said, “Ok, goodbye."

Paul called Al McNiven immediately and asked him if there was any truth to these allegations. Al said that he had not heard that information.

Rick Dubois, President of Funtastic was also called and asked about this information being given by one of the yes campaign canvassers. He said that his callers should not be spreading erroneous information.

Bill Tarr was also sent an e-mail in this regard but had not returned the e-mail at the time of this mailing.

Jim Garlick, Coldstream Councilor was sent this information and replied,

“The Spicer (land block) is not slated for development without considerable requirements involving consolidation of a large number of other of Coldstream Ranch parcels. The Coldstream Ranch owner has stated that consolidation is not an option for him. It is in writing in the reply-to-purchase information from the owner. Council has been told this and the Advisory Planning Committee has been told this. The parcels in question that were proposed for consolidation are far too valuable as fee simple parcels for this deal to be attractive anymore.”

“Unfortunately this caller did not know this and called Paul Christy who is a Advisory Planning Committee member and has been involved with the ALC his entire career as an agrologist.”

The facts are:

1. A potential deal was being considered at one time to develop a piece of the 118 acre Spicer Block parcel in exchange for the Coldstream Ranch consolidating a number of other key agricultural pieces. The Coldstream Ranch owner as stated above refused this offer and put that in writing. There have been no further discussions with the District of Coldstream in this regard.

2. ALR land that is designated for farm use does not support residential or commercial development.

3. If Coldstream Council and the ALR approve “non farm use” for this land, as is currently being requested by GVS, this land could support residential development and or the mega sports complex development with banquet halls, stadiums, and other facilities to support the sports user groups. Note: that Coldstream Meadows is currently building 160 units on non-farm use land within the ALR.

4. It should also be noted that land that has had layers of sand, gravel or fill added for subsurface paving preparation or leveling cannot be converted back to good farm land.

5. The only way to protect agricultural land and prevent development is to vote NO at the referendum.

It would be interesting to get the Vernon politician's views on this proposed mega sports complex. Since they have hired SmartGrowth BC (check out SmartGrowth BC's views on preserving agricultural land) to do their OCP this puts them in an odd, if not ironic, position to support putting the mega sports complex on some of the best agricultural land in BC.

One of Vernon’s guiding principles identified by the community and adopted by Council last August was: Protect Agricultural Land.

Recently the North Okanagan Regional District unanimously voted no to a request to send an application to the ALC for an 18-20 unit extended care home on 4.47 acres on Star Road. “It’s truly a rural area and we don’t have any designation in our official community plan for that kind of housing,” said Stan Field, BX Silver Star Director (Morning Star).

Perhaps some Coldstream Councilors should consider the same logic as this proposal also goes against the Coldstream Official Community Plan.

For Further information please contact: Terri Jones, Greater Vernon Advocates Committee spokesperson. Home: 545-6405. Cell: 550-0338