An open letter to White Rock mayor and council.
I am writing on behalf of the 28 owners of Chestnut Village at Martin Street and Thrift Avenue to ask that city council implement a policy to protect on-street parking privileges for longtime residents whose neighbourhood may be severally disrupted by new highrise developments.
In recent months, your council has approved at least seven highrise developments within two blocks of our homes. We respectfully point out that you seem not to have considered developing parking policies to deal with potential problems created by these developments.
We are concerned about the possible negative effects these developments will create for on-street parking immediately adjacent to our building. We rely on these parking spots for visitors, service providers and members of family. We believe that property owners who have been paying city taxes for decades should have priority over parking spots immediately adjacent to their homes.
We ask that you assign parking privileges to local residents only, as has been done in other areas.
City staff have advised us that council might be considering time-limited parking, which would actually result in a worse scenario than currently envisioned.
White Rock may want to examine the parking policies developed by neighbouring cities with highrise developments.
In summary, your council has approved massive developments which could create significant parking problems for longtime residents, and no acceptable parking policy has been developed to deal with the issue.
We suggest you develop a policy before it becomes a major problem.
Paul Griffin, White Rock