FOSBA Bulletin May 2024

Dear Friends,

As most of you are aware the qathet R.D. now has a Park Acquisition Fund. Homeowners within the qRD pay a tax of approximately $2.00 per $100,000 of the value of their properties per year. This amounts to $183,000 in total per year going into the fund. The fund will grow and collect interest until a piece of land suitable for parkland comes available. The fund was established in 2021 and including this years’ taxes will mean 4 years of taxes will be in the fund. The presence of the fund is a contentious issue for the qRD board of directors and there have been two attempts, one in December of 2021 and another in Dec. of 2023 to amend the financial plan and halt funding. When FOSBA heard of the rumor in 2021 that the fund was about to be challenged we reacted quickly with many strongly worded letters. FOSBA’s Andy Durie presented our plea to the board and the motion to amend the financial plan and remove the tax failed. The message was heard loud and clear. The fund was again challenged in Dec. 2023. An informed qRD strongly argued the following points:

• The only way to protect nature is to literally buy and conserve land. We have no other tools available while at the same time we face intense pressure from people wishing to live here. We could well end up with a large population which has exploited every niche available for housing, leaving next to no park space

• Park land will only likely become more expensive for future generations so it be-hooves us to help fund parks so that a much larger burden won’t fall upon our children’s generation. Could a park such as Stanley Park in a cosmopolitan setting ever be affordable today - unimaginable.

• $2.00 per $100,000 of home value per year is a very small number and yet over time this fund can become very significant.

Those who argued for the cancellation of the fund felt that the added tax burden was too financially painful at this time or that parks should be funded through long term loans.

The directors who voted against the continuation of the Park Acquisition Fund were:

George Doubt (financially painful) and Mark Gisborne (long term loans)

Those voting to keep the fund in place were – Andrew Fall, Clayton Brander, Sandy McCormick, Cindy Elliot and Lyn Adamson (alternate for Jason Lennox).

Again in Dec. of 2023 the motion to amend the park acquisition fund failed.

Through our monthly bulletins we will keep you informed. You will hear about the Bluffs from many different angles in the hopes that being well informed you can lend your support when the time comes for action. Please keep reminding those busy friends and family about FOSBA. They can join and/or donate here at https://www.fosba.org. Thus far we have 277 signed members. Our goal for 2024 is 500.

Happy Trails

Your FOSBA directors