Editor:
White Rock – a free for all.
“My City by the Sea” is now the “new Canada.”
We like the diversity of people and ideas encountered here. However, I am appalled at the laxity of rules for development, especially in-fills.
To whom does it make sense that in my East Beach neighbourhood an 11,000-square-foot house with a six-car parking garage fits the current zoning rules?
I do not fault my neighbor, because he is building a home for himself and his extended families.
I do not blame the city planners, who acknowledge the intent of the law has been circumvented.
I do blame our councils, who continue to allow the chaos the current zoning rules create, and who choose not to change them.
Should every permit application not meet with the letter – as well as the intent – of our laws? The rule of maximum square footage does not logically fit all situations.
We own this city. We can make new rules and work to see that they are not circumvented.
We are a small city for one reason only – to maintain “My City by the Sea,” not a megalopolis of inappropriate development, be it an eight-foot house beside a mega home or a mega home beside our cottage.
Council, I suggest a new program of common sense development or join Surrey and lower our taxes.
Lorraine & Chip Hand, White Rock