Dear Editor:
After reading your article last week regarding the implementation of a heritage conservation area in Queen’s Park, I feel the need to respond to a couple of comments included in the piece.
I am a Queen’s Park resident who is fully supportive of a heritage conservation area (HCA) that protects the look and value of my neighbourhood, and I am not part of a “small group of preservationists.” Many of the homeowners in Queen’s Park feel as I do, but it’s not been up to us to drive the process. That has been the job of the working group, which was put in place to investigate a Queen’s Park HCA, and is made up of a group of 12 members selected by council and representing a cross-section of Queen’s Park. Their mandate was never to create a museum but rather to investigate how to keep the neighbourhood vital and progressive while preserving the heritage character, which makes it such an attractive place to live.
The opponents to the process have made a very offensive assumption that, because I support the concept, I obviously don’t fully understand the implications of the policy. I would argue the reverse is more likely the case since opponents are basing their arguments on reports and information unrelated to an HCA and are focusing their energies on instilling fear in homeowners that there is a certainty of declining property values – something not based in fact.
As for the quote from Mr. Fox, which states that the process is speeding down the runway, I’m thinking he has missed his flight entirely since this project has been going on for three years … hardly breakneck speed, and with ample opportunity for the community to be heard. The process has involved hours of investigation, education and research into what makes a heritage conservation area successful and of benefit to its residents, so it’s somewhat of an insult to those who have donated their time to suggest that the process was at all hurried.
Gail North, New Westminster
