Dear Editor,
Re: “Steves turning Onni into four-letter word,” Letters, July 27.
By making Coun. Harold Steves the obstacle to re-zoning the Onni Imperial Landing buildings, Terry Thorsteinson gives him more credit than he is due.
There are nine members of council and no one leads them around by the nose.
Most of us have disagreed with some of their collective decisions, but sitting through their deliberations at council sessions reveals that they are all independent, thoughtful people who have the best interests of the city and its citizens at heart.
When it comes to the vacant Onni buildings, what most of the citizens want is a fair solution to the problem.
When Onni bought the Imperial Landing property, it paid industrial land prices for the prime strip along the river that was zoned for industrial activities.
Had that land been zoned for prime commercial activities, it would have paid millions more.
When Onni first asked for that land to be re-zoned, it did not offer to pay the city the millions of dollars increase in land value that the re-zoning would overnight drop in its lap.
It instead offered $50,000.
Thorsteinson may think this is just the Onni boys playing “hard and tough and stretching the rules.”
But I think it demonstrates a cynical attitude toward city council and an aggressive drive to maximize their wealth without any thought of what is a fair solution to the problem. It’s perfectly legitimate to take an adversarial approach and make it all about winning the game.
But Onni should not be offended when its perceived adversaries on city council respond by playing just as hard and tough as it does.
When city council dismissed its insulting $50,000 offer out of hand, Onni built buildings designed for commercial activities anyway and went on an extensive and aggressive campaign to convince local residents that the obstacle to re-zoning is the bogus idea that the city wants industrial enterprises in the buildings rather than commercial establishments.
One technique was to create the straw man image of the welding shops that uninformed, but well-meaning local residents may have taken at face value as a real issue.
The mythical welding shops aren’t the problem.
The problem is that the city wants Onni to pay a fair price for what it would receive from re-zoning.
Although Onni gradually raised its offer, it has not reached the level that a reasonably alert person would consider accepting.
Demonizing city council and its members isn’t going to solve the problem. Neither is demonizing Onni.
The Onni owners are probably perfectly nice people when they sit down for a beer with Thorsteinson.
They have probably adopted a very aggressive business style because they have found that it usually pays off financially.
Unfortunately, they haven’t yet got the message that it won’t work here.
Over the years, many letters have been written by myself and others suggesting compromised solutions that involve reducing the amount that Onni would have to pay by zoning one or more buildings for low rental community service activities.
These ideas are not going to fly. Onni isn’t interested in compromise.
The buildings will sit empty until Onni decides that it wants a fair solution or sells the property to someone who does.
At that point, independent expert valuation of the increase in value due to re-zoning can establish a fair payment to the city.
We can use the funds to improve the Steveston Community Centre and other community facilities which, in turn, makes Steveston more attractive and enhances the value of all property in the area.
John Roston
Steveston
