In light of the warning by Gordon Gibson in the post below, Tom Durning draws attention to just the very kind of intrusion feared by neighbours in quiet neighbourhoods confronted by rapid population growth.
Let’s call this ‘Flag-waving:’
Sentinel Hill neighbours oppose proposed 103-bed facility
A cadre of outraged citizens stayed in West Vancouver council chambers until 11:30 p.m. Monday in a failed attempt to kibosh a proposed seniors centre. Maison Senior Living has submitted a design for a three-storey, 103-bed facility which would include a floor for seniors with memory problems such as dementia.
Worse than communism, apparently:
Property values are bound to take a tumble, according to George Deng, who estimated his house would lose $200,000 in value. “All the neighbours are losing money. It’s almost the same as everyone close to it writing a cheque to subsidize this project,” he said. Deng said he fled from China and its one-child policy. “I made a decision: no one can kill my girl,” he said.
Deng promised his family that moving to a free country would be the best decision he made in his life, but the prospect of the seniors centre has complicated his choice. “If I fail, if my neighbours fail, I don’t know how to tell my girl in the future ‘I made the right decision,'” he said, receiving applause from many in attendance. …
Many speakers said they supported care facilities for seniors, but not there. However, there may be no place to move the facility that won’t result in similar objections in the name of neighbourhood character, according to Smith. “We have no more land,” Smith said. “All of these necessary facilities that we need. .. they’re going to have to go somewhere on an existing piece of property. There is no other alternative.”
Sure there is: they could go to Vancouver.
Oh wait.
Oh, brother… some people are just so hard done by, aren’t they?
Is comparing three-story building approvals to infanticide at town hall meetings the equivalent of nazi trolling online?
I think this is the site: https://www.google.ca/maps/preview/@49.329586,-123.1355395,221a,35y,39.49t/data=!3m1!1e3 Looks like a lot of trees will be lost. Is George concerned about that?
It’s also clearly BS that West Van has no more land. There’s loads of wasted space in that muni.
I hope the muni is going to step up and make Taylor Way more of a boulevard: really widen the sidewalk, especially at the intersection.
Well said Neil21.
What I also find vexing about the reaction to this proposal is that – in the very centre of the proposed area for development – sits the Odlum House, designed by Ron Thom in 1963 when he worked for TBP. Yet the loss of yet another piece of W.V. architectural heritage remains unmentioned in submissions regarding this proposal. Odd.
The irony is that these people (like all of us) might one day be looking for such a place in which to live. They (and their kids) will then be very glad it’s in the neighbourhood. …
How these people function in real life is just unfathomable to me.
They are as emphatically uncompromising a drooling toddler throwing a tantrum.
Mr. Deng has a choice, he can always go back to his home country if the prospect of having the elderly nearby horrifies him so much. And where is it guaranteed that real estate is an investment that will always increase in value anyway?