The Editor,
Re. “900 seats?” (Letters, The Tri-City News, July 10).
Approximately 30% of Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park remains open and groomed parkland. The remaining area contains many useful sports fields and dedicated function areas.
Most days, the area where the city’s planned “performance plaza” is to be built is heavily used by families, the elderly, walkers, fishers and others to picnic and simply enjoy free time. I have asked many people what they think of the proposed construction and they are on the whole not in favour of or didn’t even know what was being proposed.
The wildlife that lives in and around the lake is also an issue. We have a wonderful opportunity to watch and introduce our children to mallards, wigeons, wood ducks, eagles, mergansers, cormorants and many other wild residents and visitors. If these are disturbed, particularly at breeding time, they will likely go elsewhere, to our loss.
Also, the area that will be cut into for the plaza will mean the destruction of a lovely hillside of trees.
Another question to be considered is how attractive is the plaza going to be to gatherings of young people and even homeless individuals during darkness. Can we afford the necessary monitoring at night year round?
The first figures on cost were $1 million to $2 million, then $2 million and now $2.7 million for a use of approximately five months per year. How much is it going to end up costing? Remember, we are in a recession.
The issue here is not managing noise and late hours but the fundamental destruction of one of the most attractive areas of our City Centre. A beautiful and well-used green space is important to the centre of Coquitlam as it becomes more and more densely developed.
Carol Anderson, Coquitlam
