Dear Editor:
Re: Downtown needs more trees, Letters to the editor, The Record, Oct. 1.
Like the writer, I too have concerns about downtown New Westminster's air quality and would like to see more tree plantings, building setbacks and green space associated with new development, rather than the sea of concrete that exists in the downtown core between Fourth and 10th streets, and north from Front Street to Royal Avenue.
The writer's ideas might be taken more seriously by city hall if his statements were based on fact, rather than imaginings. To quote, "There are probably fewer trees," "construction has probably doubled the number of residents," "Downtown is probably 97 per cent residential," "probably increased the value of the project by $10 million or more."
It wasn't difficult to find factual statistics about downtown New Westminster. These were gleaned online from the New Westminster 2013 information bulletin from the development services department (and are up to the year 2012):
w There is 3,453,197 sq. ft. of non-residential floor space downtown, or 25.8 per cent of the city total.
w There have been decreases in industrial and commercial space, but institutional space has increased in the past 10 years.
w There has been an increase in the entire City of New Westminster of 4,106 units (non-single family homes) in the years 2005 to 2012. The increase in units downtown in that same time frame was 1,533.
Do I know how many trees have been planted? No. I do know that those planted in the area in the last 10 years have grown considerably. Will we soon have letters from those complaining that their views are blocked by trees? Planting more trees is not the simplistic solution to the problem of diminishing air quality in our city. We need a multi-faceted approach, including better planning and development requirements, traffic control measures and the inclusion of green space where higher density exists.
Prior to printing letters from concerned citizens, perhaps the editorial staff should do some fact checking, so as to not mislead your readers with one disgruntled citizen's perceived "statistics."
Marli Wakeling, New Westminster
