Wildlife: Deer freed from tangle. 13
Safety: Pitt Meadows toughens rules for dangerous dogs. 8 Awards: City salutes volunteer firefighters. page 3
Fr i d ay, O c to b e r 3, 2 014 · ma pler i d g enew s. co m · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y ) 6 0 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 9 7
Street fight leaves one dead RCMP identify him as Louie Sparvier, 29 By M on i sh a M ar ti n s mmartins@mapleridgenews.com
A man seriously injured early Tuesday in a fight with another man in Maple Ridge has died. The RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken charge of the file and identified the 29-yearold Wednesday as Louie Sparvier. Ridge Meadows RCMP and paramedics found Spavier lying on Laity Street between Lougheed Highway and Dewdney Trunk Road around 8 a.m. Tuesday after receiving a call about shots fired. Investigators learned that Sparvier was seen arguing with a second man minutes earlier and the dispute got violent.
Leader of the pack Nichole Van Sickle uses her phone to coax eight-monthold daughter Ella to the finish line during a baby race at the 10th annual Breastfeeding Celebration, put on by Fraser Health at the Maple Ridge library on Monday as part of World Breastfeeding Week, Oct. 1-7. Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
See Shooting, 9
City curious about riverside lots Suburb proposal could leapfrog Thornhill By P h i l M e l nychuk pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
THE NEWS/files
Harvey Gigun and other residents are opposed to the density of the proposal.
Maple Ridge is working on a way to allow dozens of modular rancher-style homes along the South Alouette River. Despite an audience opposed to the project on Tuesday, council rejected a staff recommendation to ditch an initial proposal to build
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166 manufactured, rancher homes at 240th Street and 125th Avenue. “It’s disappointing. They seem to be in love with the idea of modular homes as affordable housing for seniors,” resident Harvey Gigun said of council. “If that was really their concern, modular homes for seniors could be built on almost any lot in Maple Ridge. So what’s the push to do it in the flood plain along the Alouette River?” Council first rejected a staff recommendation to deny the project.
Only Coun. Cheryl Ashlie and Mayor Ernie Daykin voted for that. Instead, council told staff to work with Bissky Architecture and Urban Design and come up with another plan for the 34-acre site. Couns. Mike Morden, Corisa Bell, Judy Dueck and Al Hogarth voted for that, while Daykin and Coun. Bob Masse and Ashlie voted against. Morden said he wanted to see what the project looked like so he supported staff reviewing it again. “It’s a difficult one, I agree. Some-
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times you have look at some creative things.” The proposal initially called for four-times the population density that’s currently allowed under the one-acre “estate-suburban residential designation.” However, the total number of units has been reduced to 138, Gigun added. A staff report says the initial proposal would bring small-lot development to a rural area where there are now one-acre properties. See Density, 16
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