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- Friday - July 12, 2024 - Abbotsford tourism attraction call gets lukewarm reception
Friday - July 12, 2024 - Abbotsford tourism attraction call gets lukewarm reception
Grace Kennedy
July 12, 2024
☀ High 28C
Good morning!
It’s fun to be a trendsetter. Earlier this week, we published a story I had been working on for a long time about blueberry scorch. Yesterday morning, Michelle Franklin (the researcher I interviewed for that story) was on CBC’s Early Edition to talk about blueberries and aphids. She answered a question some of you asked in the comments section of our story: will the blueberry virus affect people?
The short answer is no. But you can hear her complete interview here.
There was also one more question you readers had, about whether the virus is impacting wild blueberry plants. That answer is yes, although there isn’t a lot of research yet on what exactly is happening in the wild.
– Grace
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Traffic & Weather
🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope
🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.
🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.
NEWS
UFV hopes developers will help it squeeze millions from its land
The UFV hopes to generate revenue for new buildings while creating urban neighbourhoods next to campus. 📷 UFV/Campus Communities
The University of the Fraser Valley is getting into the development business.
UFV is looking to lease out large blocks of land on its Chilliwack and Abbotsford campuses to raise money for new facilities and projects and finally kickstart long-standing ambitions.
Developers would be expected to build mixed-use projects with hundreds of housing units, along with commercial, retail, and potentially research space. The university hopes the projects would turn under-used land into millions of dollars that could pay for facilities that would otherwise depend on funding from the provincial government.
In Abbotsford, the university thinks leasing the land will help it create a long-sought after “university village” that brings life to a campus that largely goes quiet when classes are not in session. And in Chilliwack, the plans, if brought to fruition, would connect UFV’s sleepy campus there with existing growth and developments in and around Garrison Crossing.
Related
Need to Know
🚓 A 38-year-old man was injured in a early morning shooting in Abbotsford Thursday [Abbotsford News]
🚨 Two people were killed in a crash in the Fraser Canyon south of Boston Bar Thursday afternoon [Castanet]
🔎 A Langley man who has been missing since July 7 may have been seen near the Osoyoos border crossing; RCMP are asking for more information [Langley Advance Times]
🚒 Part of Chilliwack’s Vedder River trail was closed due to a log fire Thursday [Chilliwack Progress]
🎓 Q’aLaTKu7eM community school at the northernmost end of Harrison Lake will see its first student graduate at the end of next year [Hope Standard]
🌈 A rainbow crosswalk at a high school in Abbotsford was vandalized last month [Abbotsford News]
🔥 Any new wildfire has the potential to spread rapidly due to weather conditions, BC Wildfire says [Castanet]
🚔 A Mission driver overdosed and crashed into a parked car last week [Mission Record]
🚆 A new study on regional rail in the Fraser Valley is getting underway by UFV students and a transportation advocacy group [Mountain Valley Express] / The study has sent out a survey on rail transportation in the Fraser Valley
🔥 A wildfire near Harrison has grown out of control and has spread to 1.7 hectares [Agassiz Harrison Observer]
🧠 Survivors of toxic drug overdoses are facing a hidden brain injury epidemic [The Tyee]
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The Agenda
A visit to Lemay — America’s Car Museum inspired an Abbotsford councillor to call for his community to create its own indoor tourist attraction. 📷 Brandon Woyshnis/Shutterstock
Abbotsford council lukewarm about developing new tourist attraction
Abbotsford Coun. Simon Gibson wants his city’s officials to brainstorm and develop a new tourism attraction—and for that attraction to be indoors. His colleagues, though, are less enthusiastic about the idea.
Gibson brought a rare self-initiated motion to the Abbotsford council table Tuesday calling on city economic development staff to start work on developing a plan for a new tourist draw. Speaking Tuesday, Gibson said he had recently spent time at the LeMay - America's Car Museum in Tacoma.
“For anyone who has had a passing interest in automobiles, it’s quite the experience,” he said.
Gibson said the visit highlighted Abbotsford’s lack of indoor attractions that can draw tourists in poor weather. Gibson said the city is well-placed to be a home for a regional attraction, and that such a facility could be a “significant employer” and support other businesses. Although Gibson hoped the city could kickstart plans, he specified that he was hoping for an attraction run and operated by a private enterprise.
But the concept died at the table. Coun. Patricia Driessen noted that city staff are already working to increase tourism in Abbotsford and have the ability to bring new ideas forward. Coun. Patricia Ross echoed those thoughts, while pointing out that finding room for such an indoor tourist attraction would be highly difficult, given most of the city’s land is in the Agricultural Land Reserve and that which isn’t is in high demand.
“Something of this magnitude and the kind of parking it would require a lot of land,” she said. “There is very little land and what we might be able to get our hands on, we desperately need sports facilities and more sports fields.”
Mayor Ross Siemens noted that council has already instructed staff to explore how they can get a new convention centre and hotel built in the city, and that if a business or person had an idea for a specific attraction, they could bring those forward through existing channels.
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🗓 Things to do
Music festival: The Harrison Festival of the Arts gets underway on Saturday, July 13 at noon on its open-access beach stage. The first ticketed concert is with Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble at 8pm in Memorial Hall on Saturday, July 13. Performances and workshops continue until Sunday, July 21. Details online.
Invasive plants: Fraser Valley Conservancy and the Fraser Valley Invasive Species Society hosts an Invasive Plants Workshop on Saturday, July 13. Details online.
Farmers’ market: The Fort Langley Village Farmers’ Market is back on Saturdays at the St. Andrews Historic Chapel from 9am to 3pm. Details online.
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