Edutir,

Thar she blows – again. (March 29, letter to the editor, “Council member works against development.)

Ms. Finlay is a real estate broker who inserts herself into Langley’s business, with the apparent intent to thwart any environmental or public benefit projects. During my years on Langley’s Parks and Open Space Commission, we found Ms Finlay constantly working to prevent creation of parks and trails.

True to form, she now chooses to denigrate Langley Council member Rhonda Salerno. Full disclosure: I have worked with Ms. Salerno for many years and consider her a friend.

Ms. Finlay accuses Ms. Salerno of overstepping her authority as council member. She lists crimes such as having an opinion, sharing that opinion with a county commissioner and of being “the face of anti-development.” Really? This would be the same council member who has been working long and hard for affordable housing in Langley, helping the city win the Governor’s Smart Communities Award for Multi-family Infill and creating the Affordable Housing Sub-committee. She and I have had many long talks about where, how and under what circumstances Langley could provide opportunities for affordable housing.

What Ms. Salerno is “anti” is slapping up housing in places where it should not be. Langley has a fair amount of “critical areas” – places too steep, too unstable, or too wet to build. I have been asking for decades now for a hydrogeological study of Langley’s watershed so that we can know where the subsurface water is coming from, where it is moving, and where it ends up. Once we have that information we can plan with the knowledge that we are not “creating tomorrow’s problems today.”

Ms. Finlay has evidently not gotten the memo that not all locations are good for development. Rhonda Salerno has been working hard to prevent development in locations where it will do damage and to promote development in locations where it will be beneficial. She expresses serious concerns about the cost of developing in the wrong places, which puts Langley at financial risk. She has been watching the Edgecliff bluff fail and collapse bit by bit year after year. She and I have mapped out the sources and direction of the water which contributes to those failures. Building houses in those headwater areas is a guarantee of subsequent bluff failures. Dealing with those failures would fall on the city – and on the residents who lose their homes and potentially their lives.

The proposed future development option to which Ms. Salerno objected is, in fact, on precisely that land south of Sandy Point Road which contributes so much water to the Edgecliff wetlands. Not a smart place to put houses and impervious surfaces. “But we won’t even consider it for 20 years” says City Planner Meredith Penny. During those 20 years, Ms. Finlay and her fellow real estate agents will undoubtedly convince starry-eyed fools that they really want to own this “soon to be developable” property. Again, creating tomorrow’s problems today.

In all of her critiques and criticisms, I have yet to hear any positive proposal by Ms. Finlay for affordable housing in Langley – or anywhere else, for that matter. Ms. Salerno has put forth a number of proposals. I have written papers on the subject. All we hear from Ms. Finlay is “I don’t like what she’s doing.”

Leanne, you may take this as a challenge. I’m looking forward to seeing your viable proposal(s) for affordable housing in Langley.

Marianne Edain

Clinton