BIG PLANS FOR SKYTRAIN STATION
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TIME FOR TRUTH IN B.C. TREATY TALKS
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PUBLIC INVITED TO A DISASTER
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WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 15 2014 www.newwestnewsleader.com
Local dancer Caroline Kiddie is about to take on the world. See Page A12
Three bedroom units can work, council told Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
GRANT GRANGER/NEWSLEADER
Tracey Broad says the city’s plan to put a bus bay just steps from her apartment is not only a waste of money, but will destroy four beautiful cherry trees in the process.
Neighbour pans city’s bus-bay plan Laments losing beautiful, big trees that provide privacy, shade and pollution protection Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
Cutting down four big beautiful trees to make way for a bus bay is a waste of money says a nearby resident. Tracey Broad lives in Moody Gardens across Eighth Avenue from New Westminster secondary and the Massey Theatre. There’s a bus stop just steps from her fenced-in patio.
From a traffic-planning perspective, Building the bay, though, requires it’s in an awkward spot because cutting down about four mature there’s only one lane for eastbound Japanese cherry trees that are not traffic, meaning the flow is blocked only nice to look at but provide when the bus stops. privacy, shade and The city wants to protection from build a bus bay into noise and light Tracey Broad the boulevard beside It doesn’t make any sense pollution, said Broad’s condo. The to me. For me it’s literally a Broad. bay would allow In her opinion, waste of taxpayers dollars. buses to safely it would be much load and unload passengers using easier and cheaper to move the wheelchairs, scooters or strollers. stop a few feet further east to where It would also help to avoid drivers Eighth widens into two lanes. That swerving into the westbound lane to would require only switching the get around stopped buses. bus stop sign location, avoid costly
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construction and save the trees, she contends. “I do not understand their thinking. It baffles me what they’re thinking when they could save the taxpayers a load of money where they would only have to change where the [bus stop] pole is. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. For me it’s literally a waste of taxpayers dollars.” A few years ago her strata council asked to have the trees dealt with by the city because their roots were tearing up the ground-floor patios.
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New Westminster will require developers to include larger “family-friendly” units in future projects. Council has told its staff to come up with an implementation plan requiring a minimum of 20 per cent units in new developments to be two-bedrooms and another 10 per cent three bedrooms. Those guidelines were recommended to them by two consultants, Gordon Easton, managing director of Colliers International and UrbanWORKS president Brent Toderian. Easton told council on Oct. 6 their research shows there would be a negligible difference in developer’s profit margins if the requirements were imposed. The findings came despite many developers telling councillors that the market trend is toward smaller units. “We haven’t been cavalier about our considerations,” said Toderian, former chief planner with the City of Vancouver. Please see WE’VE, A3