In a Sept. 22 letter to the editor of the Leader Post, mayorality candidate Jim Holmes wrote the following. We thought we should post it because it deals with a subject covered by this website:

In an editorial on Sept. 14, the Leader-Post implied the Coalition For A Citizen-Friendly Regina is anti-growth. This is not accurate. We are in favour of intelligent growth. We are not in favour of just repeating the same old mistakes.

We have consistently offered constructive solutions to the problems Regina faces, and acknowledged the city does many things very well. At a recent planning commission meeting we commended the city on the quality of the neighbourhood design, sense of community, and easy internal pedestrian and cyclist transportation in its new development plans.

We raised the issue that new development does not always pay for the full costs of necessary infrastructure like the proposed new interchange at the Lewvan and Saskatchewan Drive and possibly at Lewvan and 13th Avenue. (We have subsequently learned the development fees are considerably more complex, most of these costs are recouped and the city is examining if there might be more effective ways to assign costs to new developments.)

We also noted the new development will result in a new intersection at Parliament Avenue, a four-way intersection at Gordon Road, and two additional T-intersections to serve the big box development. The south end of the Lewvan expressway will become the same stop-and-go traffic as the north end.

We raised the concern that Wal-Mart proposes to be part of this southwest big box development and will likely leave the Southland Mall.

This is an important anchor for an important community centre in the south of the city, and it may cause a real deterioration in the services in Albert Park.

We raised the fact that many retailers are now abandoning the big-box format, and that we are planning this development on a possibly obsolete model.

We told the commission about two proposals that would make the airport an engine of growth in Regina. One is for an air, road and rail cargo container facility. Are we conceding this opportunity to Winnipeg by boxing in our airport? The other is a rumour that the federal government would like to see one regional airport in Saskatchewan. Are we conceding this opportunity to Saskatoon?

The South-West Development Plan calls for Parliament (which runs straight as an arrow now for about five kilometers) to veer north in the new development towards the airport, where the development's "town centre" will be located. We suggested, rather, that the "town centre", with its community services, daycares, more moderately priced housing, local businesses and possibly a school, should be shifted away from the noise of the airport.

We also said we should develop pedestrian and cyclist links from the new development to the existing neighbourhoods of the city. Admittedly this won't be an option for everyone, but it is often important to a young and well-educated population, and it is important to retain and attract such a population.

Even the most optimistic population growth estimates say we will not need the southwest development until about 2050, especially if we proceed with the southeast growth plan, which doesn't have the same problems of building homes directly beside an airport. What's the rush?

The Leader Post says that the malls hurt the downtown and that the big boxes hurt the malls, and asks why should we be concerned about this process. We already have the relic of an abandoned Superstore at Albert and Dewdney welcoming people to downtown. Now we are giving tax breaks to rebuild downtown. Rebuilding is good, but it won't help much if we continue with the policies that caused it to deteriorate in the first place.

We can have a growth model that reduces the destructive effects of growth and maximizes the benefits? "Growth" is not a simple up-or-down measurement; we can -- and must -- grow intelligently.

Jim Holmes

Holmes is the Coalition for a Citizen-Friendly Regina's candidate for mayor.