The Editor,
Re. “Highrise limits lifted by Coquitlam council” (The Tri-City News, Aug. 4).
Your story on this public hearing ended thus: “… council approved a highrise halt while further consultation could take place.”
Exactly. Back then, while on city council, I voted for that halt for “further consultation.” No real consultation occurred. Planning began by re-reading the public’s comments on the one highrise approved — the one that led to the halt.
Lots of internal discussion took place and, once a proposed plan was together, a flyer was sent to those whose properties were directly affected. Not the neighbours soon to live in the shadow of new towers, considerably higher than the one that prompted the ban. Not those soon to be affected by the increased traffic or by the loss of barely affordable rental housing.
Consultation was extensive when the Austin Heights Neighbourhood Plan was created in 2011. The change now proposed and passed deserved the same opportunities for public input.
Neal Nicholson
Coquitlam
