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Letter: Exponential growth in Fraser Valley equates to a loss of quality of life

Letter to the editor
news@skyhinews.com

As a property owner in Fraser since 1978, I skied my youth, middle age and now, my old age away. I’ve watched the beauty of Fraser Valley devolve from trees, wildlife, clean air and plenty of space to the exponential growth of million-dollar homes and massive apartment buildings.

At this rate, Winter Park will resemble the monstrosity of Vail Valley. There are more rooftops than treetops. Endless construction endeavors to turn Winter Park into a “City of Cement.” Pretty soon, your morning run will be taken on pavement. Soon enough, you’ll see more windows and concrete than mountain peaks. As the pavement overwhelms the land, the little creatures will scurry away. The hawks will vacate the skies.

At some point, exponential growth equates to loss of quality of life, loss of the natural world and loss of our connection to the wilderness. My old friend Wallace Stegner said, “Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed … if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams, and push our paved roads through the last of the silence.”



If the Winter Park Town Council continues on this building explosion, there won’t be an affordable place to live in the valley, the air pollution will accelerate, and the quality of life will turn into stop lights and gridlock. At some point, none of it will be sustainable as water, energy and resources become exhausted.

What we all need to be pushing for at our town councils is quality of life policy. Consider “Winter Park Population Stabilization Policy” and “Winter Park Carrying Capacity Policy.” If not, everyone and everything we cherish will be gone. Thank you.



— Frosty Wooldridge, Golden


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