Editor:
In my mail last week was a ‘preliminary notice’ from the City of Surrey planning department telling me of an application for a “proposed” development of 71 townhouse units on 16 Avenue and King George Boulevard and 162 Street – the same site that has a huge sign saying the development is coming soon.
Properties have been bought out and many thousands of dollars have been spent clearing houses, and yet the notice says the community plan and zoning must be changed to allow the development to go ahead.
The notice says all this must be done, and the matter has not even gone before council yet. A public hearing will be held May 28, and they say your comments will go to council.
Are we to believe a developer would spend a large amount of money doing this, if they were not already sure that the changes they seek were are a sure thing?
Are we to believe our comments to the planning department and presumably council will make a bit of difference?
This city has already made substantial changes to the official community plan, resulting in the overcrowding and trashing of city neighbourhoods with boxes called townhouses. Our schools are already jammed to the hilt and our trees are being slaughtered until there is little left. Surrey is no longer the “City of Parks” – try “City of Condos and Townhouses” – all in the name of pleasing developers and collecting more tax dollars.
Thanks, Mayor Linda Hepner and your cronies on council, you have done about all the damage you can do; 24 Avenue is next.
James Haughton, Surrey