The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
September 25, 2007
BLURRED VISION IS STILL VISION
The Official Community Plan Workshop hosted last week by the Town of Princeton showed us something we knew all along but could not identify with words.
The community has always had a vision, only it wasn't very clear or it got sidetracked somewhere when a different driver got behind the wheel.
We're not sure who's idea it was to quit drawing the town water from upstream sources to downstream sources, nor why the downtown theme changed from Edwardian to Western to no identifiable theme nor can we tell you why parts of Princeton contain industrial land alongside residential and commercial land alongside residential.
We don't even want to try to speculate why the shorter than regulation pool is at one end of town, the curling rink is at another end of town and the arena is nowhere near either.
But the other side of the coin is at least we have these facilities along with many others not mentioned here that, regardless of where they are, all need some attention and regular usage.
Not that the OCP can fix any of that, but one thing is for sure, the old excuse of "Well, that's how it's done in Princeton" may actually become as outdated as the 1993 OCP document that is currently under review. The old Princeton way of doing things was not so much to address the best place to put something as opposed to what was considered best for the community at the time.
And you really can't blame the planners and decision makers at the time for wanting what they thought was the right thing to do. They at least had sort of a plan.
The promise made by the shiny new, glow in the dark, answer all your questions about the future OCP is to put all future plans in a more concentrated and sensible format. It may not mean ten storey buildings lining Bridge Street, but it may mean a more consistent look to Bridge Street sometime in the future. It may not mean a four way stop at Bridge and Vermilion but it may make room for something special at that intersection. And maybe that's all some of us want a little consistency in our community.
What's the worst that could happen?
In fifteen years we all get together again to hash out plans for another OCP. There's no doubt it's a work in progress, but so is the growth of any community. The good thing about our situation is that things haven't gotten so far out of hand that we're playing catch up instead of making future plans to prevent having to do so.
