The Editor:
To the New Westminster Council,
Re: The proposed Columbia Square development.
Why would we turn this thriving and much-used commercial space with a multitude of small businesses and shops into a huge, unwanted and unneeded concrete jungle?
Traffic has greatly increased, and with it, pollution.
Small businesses have been ousted as high rises went up and a number of businesses will be displaced if the Columbia Square development goes through.
We do not have sufficient amenities for the already existing population and yet you are prepared to increase that by several thousands.
It beggars belief that the planning department, who are supposedly trained in planning, and the councillors who were elected to act on behalf of the people, would think that this decision is in the best interests of the electorate and the livability of this city.
It should be clear to everyone that we have hit a saturation point in densification as the second most populated city in Canada.
This acquiescing to developers that we have observed over many years has hit bottom in Columbia Square.
Developers are interested in the short term. We need to look at the long term in the interest of the city.
Lastly, the area around the 22nd Street station was approved for development in the official community plan (of which I was a member) in 2016.
Almost 20 years later, nothing has happened. Not one building.
Why not?
- Mickey Bickerstaff and Bill Zander, New Westminster
