When former city councillor Sherry Carroll thought about why she wanted to run for a civic seat again, she drew up a page-long list of reasons.
Carroll, who in 2011 lost the council seat she had held for one term to Dean Washington by 145 votes, split her action plan in two: what was outside of the city's purview and what the municipality could accomplish directly.
A member of the city of Coquitlam's Riverview Lands Advisory Committee, Carroll earmarked the upcoming "restoration" of the mental health care property as, once approved, having a significant impact on PoCo.
Next on her list was the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam, due to open in 2016. That rapid transit alignment, she fears, may be a negative for PoCo in terms of connectivity.
"In my experience, every time something major happens to the transit structure in the Tri-City area, we lose," she said. "I remember very clearly when we moved here 22 years ago, we had six crosstown routes. We are now down to two: [the] 160 and 159 [buses] We have to have a say in that."
Another external hit on PoCo will be the massive growth on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam. "All that lovely, new infrastructure - i.e., drains - is going to go into PoCo's old infrastructure downhill," the geophysicist said. "This is not good. What you get is backup. It will break and rupture."
Carroll said she has no preference on the Fremont connector route to Burke as the details will be negotiated between the two cities' staffs. "I want to wait to see the studies and hear what the people really want."
As for PoCo-specific issues, Carroll said she likes how city council approved a short-term tax hike to pay for the Coast Meridian Overpass. Something similar could also be done for a new recreation complex, she suggested, although balancing property tax increases with infrastructure needs can be tricky.
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