Have you ever been to a meeting of your local council lately?

If not, it's an eye opener let me tell you...but also a 'feel gooder' seeing democracy play out in front of you, as contorted as it might be.

Proposals coming forth to the Town of the Blue Mountains last night ranged from a townhouse development downtown to an eco-agricultural residential community on the periphery of Thornbury to a new dog kennel operation being proposed by our neighbours! Good thing we’re dog lovers…

Not surprisingly the different projects all had the proponents and opponents, to a degree, with some people simply voicing their opposition to ‘change’.

My feeling is that change is a good thing, an inevitable thing, but that at the very least we deserve and should in fact demand progressive change that will meet the needs of today while doing our best to address the prospects of future generations.

For the most part I think that the TOBM, backed by increasingly progressive municipal and provincial regulatory frameworks, is trying to set a course for sustainable development. Ultimately though, it will be our willingness to embrace new forms of green building, densification around existing municipal services and creative multi-use projects that address everything from energy to waste, transportation to food that will allow us to steer the ship of civilization in a sustainable direction.

We’re not their yet. Some of us are still clinging to strict notions of the single family home, big garage for the SUV to get to the Supersentre for a mass consumption of cheap goods lifestyle.

Unbeknownst to some, sustainable development is not something that comes in a box that we can buy at an everyday low price. A better future will involve a revaluation of what is really important to our lives and shifting towards new notions of well-off means: healthy food without nutrient deficiencies or chemical externalities; communities that function like large families, not gated communities built on the basis of exclusion; and efficient municipal services that empower people and protect the environment that supports us...for example.

While we might feel powerless to change policies at the national or provincial level more than every 4 or less years (such as why we continue to subsidize industrial farms that sell their goods below cost of production to compete on the world market, rather than support small organic farms that are producing healthier food for local consumption) your local council probably has open meetings weekly.

So the next time you get a ‘Notice of Adjustment’ in the mail or see something that catches your eye in the newspaper, head down to your local council chambers for the meeting and have your voice heard. You’ll feel good about it, probably bump into some of your friendly neighbours and be able to keep tabs on what kinds of new developments are taking place in your community. And forget the Cineplex, for the money these open council meetings may be the best heart pounding entertainment value around.