The Editor,
Re. "Density, more or less, in changing BQ-Lougheed" (The Tri-City News, April 15).
An article by reporter Gary McKenna stated Coquitlam Coun. Dennis Marsden "questioned the rationale for soliciting feedback from city residents on the density issue" and quoted him as saying, "The train has left the station. Whether you support [density] or not, it is moot. We just need to move forward with how we manage it."
This comment has an air of arrogance and substantiates my concerns we are in for four full years of disrespect for long-term residents of Coquitlam by both elected officials and city planners.
The only ones getting respect are developers who can afford both the money to donate heavily to election coffers and the time to lobby planners.
We are facing even more decimation of our established neighbourhoods than has already happened under the two previous councils. I suggest this quote should read "no increased density coming, whether developers like it or not."
Our mayor and council work for us. We pay the bills. We suffer the consequences.
There is room to accommodate low- to mid-rise development but not 20-plus storeys. Coquitlam is rapidly gaining a reputation for stepping on not only residents of established neighbourhoods but neighbouring cities with regard to uninhibited traffic growth and associated congestion.
The Evergreen Line cannot alleviate this if the population of both people and cars increases at the level proposed. It is not "moot" to say whether you support density or not but it certainly is moot to bother saying anything when elected officials and very well-paid staff won't listen anyway.
Ken Holowanky, Coquitlam
