Vancouver - Densification Translink

To the editor:

Vancouver residents rally for planning changes at City Hall protest

by YOLANDE COLE on SEP 24, 2013 at 9:11 PM Georgia Straight

A most interesting article: We live next door to a related development. We once had two houses South of us. We now have three houses with two addresses each, two lane houses with their addresses. A total of eight residences where once there were two.

There is something about densification that needs discussion and an action plan by officials. We understand that densification may be an answer to Vancouver expansion, but as we told the planning board densification without a plan will be a disaster that creates severe crisis in an already stressed number of city facilities and services.

Densification overloads existing overcrowded Hospitals, Schools; Libraries will need expansion, as do Community Centers’. There may be others that could be raised.

Parking problem in Vancouver; densification will create a need for more parking and again costs will go up. Transportation is vital to both business and citizens. Traffic accidents in Vancouver are problematic. Are our streets wide enough for the new load created by densification? The predicted increase in senior population will add to the densification problems.

Planning is needed to get people out of their cars and into public transit. Transit plan in the form of South Coast British Columbia Transportation Act was originally supposed to do just that. The time has come to recognize that a transit public inquiry open to all is desperately needed. Particular attention should be paid to all transit users, able bodies and disabled; transit users experiences will contribute significantly to a transit investigation. The investigation should have prior commitments from all levels of government to act positively on the investigation’s recommendations.

John & Elizabeth Beeching
4715 Lanark Street
Vancouver, BC V5N 3R9