Editor:
Re: Surrey to halt evictions from existing illegal suites, Dec. 6.
Over many years I have observed the municipality – and now city – of Surrey enabling so many people when it came to enforcing bylaws.
Instead of proactive bylaw enforcement, it was mostly reactive.
You would think bylaw officers would be cruising around looking for bylaws not being obeyed, but you would mostly be wrong – such things as dogs running loose in most parks, dogs on the beach off leash, parking bylaws for trucks or cars etc.
Most of the time, someone had to be make a complaint before any action would be taken. Quite often, that action would be very slow coming.
There are so many places in the City of Surrey where people thought they were moving into single-family areas only to find out later about the many illegal suites.
You would have to have your head in the ground not to see the changes going on in these neighbourhoods. The city just kind of looked the other way and now we are in an overcrowded mess.
With the size of Surrey, you would think there would be all kinds of choices of the type of neighbourhood you would like to live in, but that has been changing like a growing spreading ivy.
Even areas where people chose to live in with bigger lots and more room to play continue to change.
Nothing is written in stone and nothing is sacred anymore. Develop, develop, develop is the catch word, no matter what the consequences – such as parking, traffic tie ups, pollution, school populations etc.
Maybe we need to slow down and maybe we need to figure out what all of the huge population growth is going to make us become and is that what we want?
Brian Lauder, Surrey