Nelson's mayor, council and local environmental NGO (the EcoSociety) are missing the opportunity to encourage the high-end Nelson Commons and waterfront development to build waste management infrastructure and energy-saving technology into these wealthy endeavours.
Both developments should have organic and non-organic waste facilities build into their plans. The new socialist real estate/grocery store and the restaurants that will be part of this high-end condo world could easily have in-vessel composting machinery that would drastically lower their ecological footprint.
Cardboard, glass, paper and tins could all be partially processed at the point of origin if we had progressive municipal leadership that accepts more from wealthy bankers and their socialist and capitalist counterpart developers.
We do not need more years of willy nilly waste and energy management. We need to start lowering and consolidating waste and reducing energy into these new very wealthy neighbourhoods. Their socialist and capitalist bankers can easily afford to fund wisdom and not just greedy speculation.
Nelson's in-town waterfront is one of BC's most valuable pieces of real estate. We do not need to compromise or beg these bankers/developers, we simply need the political will to start directing them, rather than them dictating to municipal elected pundits and the entrenched bureaucrats that run our town.
The waterfront development should have been directed by our political pundits to do a cost analysis of conserving energy by piping into the lake for 50 or 60 per cent of the heating cost of the development with heated greenhouses for the much bantered "food security."
We are adding more high-end consumers/taxpayers to Nelson's population base with no effort to start lowering the cost of servicing these folks. As it stands these wealthy folk cost more than they contribute. In reality this is the plight of our planet.
Tom Prior
Nelson