Dear Editor:
All of New Westminster, not just Sapperton residents, should be paying close attention in the coming weeks. The year's long fight to keep our residential neighbourhood intact is coming up to the rezoning process.
The city council gets to decide whether to preserve Lower Sapperton or to begin the erosion of single family dwellings by replacing them with commercial and/or institutional buildings.
The neighbourhood affected has spoken loud and clear with letters to the council, speeches at council meetings, petitions, signage and the biggest public outcry the city has ever seen.
A community poll showed that the vast majority of residents are against the expansion of business into our neighbourhood, with only a handful of houses undecided or supporting the plans for the official community plan (OCP) change.
None of this caused council to bat an eye.
The official community plan change went through as if we hadn't said a word.
They have a chance to stop this atrocity by not changing the zoning of the properties in question.
Since the official community plan change, the proposed project has been downsized, omitting the daycare that was so loved by the city staff because it would bring jobs and childcare.
Now it is just an office building and some affordable housing.
Housing which could have been built on the property under the original OCP because it is a residential use.
If the zoning is changed to allow an office building into a strictly residential neighbourhood, after years of protesting by the residents of that neighbourhood, then it is a very obvious statement by city council that they are not interested in the current residents of their city.
They have future plans that don't include us, so our opinions are not important. This is in Sapperton, but next year it could be in Queensborough or Moody Park.
If you bought in New West because you love your quaint residential neighbourhood that is conveniently close to all the amenities, maybe you will like it more if the amenities move in right next door.
You can wave to all your new neighbours as they look down on you in your backyard from their offices three storeys above you, how lovely.
If the residents of New West have no say in the official community plan, then who is the community that this plan refers to?
Julie Gaudet, New Westminster
