Farm plans spark anger
Jackson Farm enthusiasts have been clearing the historic property of invasive blackberry brambles
Sean Orcutt was chopping back blackberry brambles on Saturday on the Jackson Farm.
Photograph by: Maria Rantanen , TIMES
A group of conservationists are concerned Maple Ridge council will allow a housing development at the bottom of Lower Jackson Farm.
Council is set to make a decision on the proposal at tonight's council meeting.
The lot under question at the bottom of Lower Jackson Farm was severed from the property in the 1940s. The developer wants to build 30 homes on it and a bioswale has been proposed on the farm property to deal with drainage issues.
Sean Orcutt was at Lower Jackson Farm on Saturday chopping back blackberry brambles with a group of Maple Ridge residents who don't want the development to go ahead.
Orcutt said he feels the development is "outside the original agreement," which allowed Upper Jackson Farm to be developed and the lower one preserved as a park.
"I don't want to see development encroach on it any more than it has already," he said.
Alex Pope was also clearing blackberry bushes with his children at the farm on the weekend. He'd like to see more people coming out to discuss the longterm plan for the Jackson Farm - which council plans to deal with this year - in order to make a "better decision" for its future.
"I think it's important to have a good balance between residential development and parkland," Pope said.
Ruskin resident Ruth Pare said she is disgusted and disappointed with the "concessions" mayor and council seem to be making.
"Protection of the natural beauty, the wildlife, and the watercourses should take priority over accommodating a developer by disturbing the natural flow of the drainage on the farm," she said.
