Korpan Shenannigans

Also on the public hearing agenda tonight for rezoning are properties at the head of Maffeo Sutton Park in Nanaimo. When the whole conference centre process was started they were offered to the developer as enticement to build the centre. Prime waterfront real-estate they were slotted for the development of 2 26 story Condominium towers and resulted in the demolition of the well loved Civic Arena as well as the Foundry, a one of a kind heritage building.

If approved; City councils return of these properties to park designation at Maffeo Sutton Park will be in my opinion one of the best moves they have made in the last three years. While the news is good the property could still be at risk in the future and it would be nice to see some sort of covenant that would make it impossible for them to be taken away in the future.

This letter to the editor Not building condos will cost taxpayers dearly written by our former mayor. What he does not mention in it is that while the properties were being 'sold" to the developer the City had agreed to purchase 150 parking spaces from said developer at the cost of $50,000 per space or $7,500,000.00. If I am not mistaken this was far more than the city would have received for the purchase of the property so in effect we would have ended up giving it away.

Our ex mayor seems to have nothing better to do these days than continue his law suit against citizens Tony Parkin and Angela Negrin with regards to the infamous FREE NANAIMO FROM KORRUPTION bumper sticker and write the odd, very ‘odd’, letter to the editor.

I was given permission to print Mr. Ricker’s letter, below, in response to Korpan with the following proviso: “Feel free to put it on your blog with an appropriate notation that the Daily News continues to operate with a blacklist despite the prescriptive advice of the BC Press Council, which was rendered after I lodged a formal complaint against the admitted blacklisting policy of the current editor of the DN.”

Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 10:57 PMSubject: Gary Korpan, Philip Wolf and the final (?) bathos of the 2004 referendum plan

To the Editor:Perhaps it is merely a coincidence that defeated mayor Gary Korpan's angry letter in response to city council's decision to preserve as park land the area beside the Pearson Bridge, previously designated as part of the gift package to would-be hotel developers Triarc/Suro/Millennium, appeared the same day as another instalment of Philip Wolf's prolonged and amusing send-up of Mr. Korpan's downtown hotel/conference centre dream (August 25).

Mr. Korpan has no credentials as a city planner, yet he prattles on about high rises overlooking Maffeo Sutton Park as essential to achieving the city's population target for the downtown. Lewis Villegas, a reputable planner of some considerable experience, came to the city late in the 2004 referendum campaign and effectively demonstrated that this population target could be achieved by means of low-rise construction supported by a sensible overall plan for the downtown.

Mr. Korpan also continues to believe in offering gifts to would-be developers, even though all there is to show for his previous efforts is his spectacular failure to deliver the goods.

News story: Plans for towers adjacent to Maffeo-Sutton park could soon be shelved