Editor,
I would like to respond to J. Chandler's Nov. 22 reply to Ms. Wardle's Letter to the Editor, in reference to the proposed South Surrey Costco location.
Let me start by saying that I have been in contact with hundreds of "directly impacted neighbours" and report that we are overwhelmingly in favour of a South Surrey location! Just not where it is currently proposed.
Many of us, myself included are Costco members, and will continue to be. We just hope all of the interested parties will, at least partially agree that the "Costco effect" will have a direct impact on us, and further to that, they somewhat agree with us that the local area residents will bear most of the inconvenience and only receive minimal benefit.
Our concerns are numerous, but include that this location will disrupt the quiet enjoyment of our property, as well as contending with thousands of vehicles/day interfering with our only entrance/exit to our complex. The effect on our property values break down to reflect that even a five per cent decrease in our investment will collectively have a $3,000,000 loss for our complex alone, or approximately $40,000/unit.
Would you still want this across from your home if you were about to take that kind of loss? No? Hmmmm, neither would we, and I can safely say that neither do the other complexes in the hot zone!
I do agree with J. Chandler though; environmental concerns are a high priority to consider before development. But, if we didn't develop land, we may very well still be living in caves, so, as top of the food chain, it is essential to develop land for growth, but we have an equal responsibility to develop land with minimal environmental impact.
For the record, I also live directly across from the proposed Costco, and yes, we purchased six years ago, while the complex was still under construction. At that time, we did ask about future development as anyone can tell that this area was exploding with townhomes and condos. I did know that a new school on 20th Avenue, at 165-166 streets was a work in progress, but that is exactly what we were signing up for: development to benefit our residential community.
However, J. Chandler, I am unclear how we (or the developer) were expected to learn about Costco's proposal back in 2018 though, as I speculate that even Costco themselves only had, at best, this proposal sitting on the desk of their "planning department," perhaps categorized under "potential locations," and it was not made public yet for our developer to even have the ability to disclose that information to those of us who purchased our homes,
I have also been in contact with both the city and the developer, both of whom have provided me all the information I've asked for, and more. I have found both of them to respond quickly to my calls and emails and appreciate that, although they have a job to do, they also want the best for Surrey and together we can find a more appropriate land for Costco to relocate.
Thank you.
Terry McManus, Surrey
