Dear Editor,
I feel compelled to write this as a pending vote on whether to approve a new Toyota dealership in a rural area looms on the horizon. Foothills County only seems concerned with generating revenue as opposed to 99 per cent of local residents who do not want this business type in our local rural community.
Only our councillor has voted against, which we would expect.
I guess it always boils down to who is willing to take legal action and I guess given no alternative, we will have to take legal action to once again fight “City Hall” when it doesn’t want to listen to the community!
The Toyota dealership needs to be in Okotoks! Not in a rural setting!
To people outside our area, all I would say is that your councillor is basically saying, he or she doesn’t care about local rural communities and a business, which you may not want will get his vote trading values for money!
They say they don’t need the lights and I would argue that with 30 years as a certified OHS professional and past accident investigator, they absolutely do need the lights. I would really like to have a safety discussion with any council member who disagrees and would like to see their qualifications for making the argument that lights are not needed.
Points to consider:
- Dangerous intersection for highway access with no lights being approved.
- Dangerous increase in traffic, especially 80 to 90-foot track-trailers who have to cross the highway to get onto the highway to Calgary as trailers will sit out into flow of traffic to wait to make the turn northbound.
- No consultation with ministry of environment.
- No environmental assessment, for example bird nesting area.
- Zero support from all but one, the land seller.
- Increased rural lighting, which in our area greatly effects the observatory not far from us as the crow flies.
- Test drives on back roads where numerous Okotoks residents are out walking pets daily on our back roads such as 8th Street and 322 Avenue.
Richard Green
Okotoks
