As We Age Learn to be adaptable as we grow old. p24
SRT kicks off first year of varsity. p31
THE NEws
Gardening Ornamental grass companions. p40
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, August 30, 2013 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
Councillors off to UBCM convention Bing doing double duty as councillor and MLA by Ph i l M e lnych uk staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/The newS
Daycare dilemma Drea Beye with her son Warik, 5, on their front steps. Putting Warik in after-school care is going to cost the struggling Maple Ridge mom hundreds of dollars every month since she’s no longer getting a government subsidy. See story p5.
After listening to their counterparts from across Canada at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in June, Maple Ridge councillors will do the same thing in Vancouver Sept. 16 to 20, when the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention happens in the same place. “I feel this is probably the biggest conference we should be attending,” said Pitt Meadows Mayor Deb Walters. “We do a lot of work at this conference, with policy setting, connecting with our provincial MLAs.” Pitt Meadows councillors want to talk to the minister of housing and the minister of transportation, regarding the North Lougheed Connector, which just got the OK from the Agricultural Land Commission. See UBCM, p8
Flood level dropped for homes Developer asks city for exemption to build lower by P h i l M e l nychuk staff reporter
School supplies costly for families. Donate at the Caring Place. See story, p11
Two months after historic floods swept through Calgary, Pitt Meadows council is moving towards lowering the flood construction level for a new townhouse project in the southern part of the city. Council’s committee meeting OK’d Tuesday the request by Onni
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Group of Companies to lower the level by 42 centimetres, to 5.33 metres. The change still needs council approval. “It’s a very small amount that we’d be lowering it by so I’m not worried,” Mayor Deb Walters said Wednesday. The level of 5.33 metres is also the provincial guideline for construction in a flood plain and will be the same level as nearby homes. Pitt Meadows’ current bylaw requires a flood construction level of 5.75 metres. Onni wants the exemption so the new townhomes are the same height as the existing
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ones. “I think one thing we have to realize is we do live in a flood-plain area and we are surrounded by dikes and I think anyone who moves into Walters Pitt Meadows realizes that,” Walters said. But the city ensures its dikes are solid and “we take drainage very
seriously. “We’re not going to say people won’t be flooded but at the same time it’s a very small amount that we’d be lowering it by so I’m not concerned.” Onni wants to rezone the 4.6-hectare property at 19451 Sutton Ave., south of Airport Way, for a multi-family townhouse development. A staff report notes that the nearby Sawyer’s Landing and Bonson’s Landing, both new developments, are built to the lower flood construction level.
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