The Editor,
Re. "Towering concerns on Austin" (The Tri-City News, June 1).
There is a near-universal consensus that the Austin Heights commercial core is in dire need of revitalization so, like many Coquitlam councillors, staff members and area residents, I, too, was astounded by the level of opposition to the Beedie Group's tower proposal on Austin.
To make clear just what this revitalization entails, the Austin Heights Neighbourhood Plan - the creation of which involved dozens of open houses, input sessions, public hearings, etc. and was ultimately unanimously approved by council and lauded by the community - refers to the Neighbourhood Centre (in which the proposal is located) as "high-density" no fewer than six times, features highrises in seven photographs and illustrations, and calls for a "two- to four-storey street-wall punctuated by a series of towers" along Austin.
It is simply inconceivable that anyone could interpret this as meaning anything other than height and density.
As Coun. Brent Asmundson said, without the levels of density proposed in this project and called for by the plan, developers simply will not be interested and thus the entire process will stall.
This proposal is a resounding vote of confidence in an area overlooked for the past two decades. To reject it would be to reject more than just a tower but the entire notion of a refreshed, renewed and revitalized Austin Heights.
Sebastian Zein, Port Coquitlam
