An open letter to New Westminster mayor and council:
We live at The Point on Victoria Street. There are 146 residential units, seven commercial units and 262 parking spaces for probably 300 residents, with most of the motor vehicles used every day.
We should have at least 1,200 new trees near our building (based on a report showing Toronto’s tree density at four trees per person), but we only have 19, which is about the same as there was when the property was a two-storey commercial building.
Then there are the following:
w Urban should have 1,000 new trees;
w Plaza 88, three buildings (maybe soon four) should have 4,500 new trees;
w North Bank should have 1,500 new trees;
w The Dominion should have 1,000 new trees;
w Elliot should have 1,000 new trees;
w Brickyard should have 1,000 new trees;
w Larco (three buildings) should have 4,000 new trees;
w Bosa (two buildings) should have 3,000 new trees;
w 817 Carnarvon St. should have 1,500 new trees;
w Carnarvon and Sixth Street should have 2,000 new trees (this location should have been a real park);
w Merchantless Square (not really sold yet) should have many more trees;
w Anvil Palace should have many more trees.
The grand total of new trees required in downtown New Westminster is more than 23,000, all because of your too-tall uglification/densification building program for the past 11 years.
Clearly downtown is less livable and less family-friendly, more than ever – more people, more crime, more traffic chaos, more homeless, more noise, more air pollution, less historic, less heritage and a lot more municipal taxes.
All just to please Big Egos, Big Developers and Big Monopoly Unions.
So how many more people, because of your official community plan for downtown, will get sick and die prematurely today?
Yours truly and respectfully,
Allan and Iris Solie, New Westminster
