Concerned Citizens of Port Moody's mandate: To Protect and Preserve
The four founding members of Concerned Citizens of Port Moody (CCPM)—Rob Fenger, Meghan Lahti,Reiner Specht and Kathleen Thomson-are long time Port Moody residents who came together as a group because they believed that City Council's "develop at all costs" mentality threatened the quality of life in their beautiful community.
Determined to retain Port Moody's precious greenery and quaint small town charm, they began the long fight to make sure that their city, sandwiched among the relentless urban sprawl of neighbouring municipalities, would not become yet another city permanently ruined by ugly, treeless developments like Westwood Plateau.
Biology student collects amphibians in the North Shore Wetlands for study. Photo credit: Catherine Dickie
CCPM is committed to a vision of Port Moody as a city whose forested North Shore will provide an oasis of beauty amid a Lower Mainland whose natural green spaces are being eradicated at an alarmingly relentless pace. CCPM's mission is simple yet compelling—to convince Council to listen to the people's desire to preserve our last remaining forested lands form the horrific scars of clearcuts and massive housing development.
The people of Port Moody have certainly spoken, loud and clear. Time and time again during the last 14 months, they have told council to rethink their rash drive to tear down our North Shore forests.
They have packed the November 1994, January 1995 and June 1995 Public Hearings, passionately arguing that the development nightmare cease.
They have signed by the hundreds community-initiated surveys asking that the Neighbourhoods 3&4 development plans be dumped. Over 2500 Port Moody residents have signed CCPM's petition calling for the future of the North Shore to be decided through a public referendum rather than by means of a quick, irrevocable deal signed with developers.
They have become the environmental stewards of our North Shore, successfully forcing Council to admit that, in its rush to push a connector highway through the forest, it had ignored Ministry of Environment guidelines and irresponsibly damaged the North Shore's Hett Creek.
And most recently, in a highly publicized and precendent-setting B.C. Supreme Court decision, one Port Moody citizen succeeded in having the Neighbourhoods 3&4 development plans quashed.
Despite Justice Stu Leggatt's ruling that the City of Port Moody failed to provide proper disclosure, City Council has decided to spend thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money to launch an Appeal of the Supreme Court ruling that a municipal council must be honest with its electorate.
The battle is far from over. Although Council has fought to silence those who simply want to save their community form the havoc of the developer's bulldozer, the voices of Port Moody residents cannot be stilled. CCPM and its hundreds of supporters know that the only way to guarantee quality of life within our city is to stop forever the reckless destruction of our North Shore forests.
On February 26th, Port Moody needs to hear your voice one more time. Attend the Public Hearing and tell Council that they have a duty to save our forests, our wetlands and our urban streams. Tell them that the only acceptable plan for the North Shore is to leave untouched its treed slopes and hiking trails as a priceless forested sanctuary for generations to come.
