The Editor,
Re. "City has to act on too large houses" (Letters, The Tri-City News, Feb. 25).
In his letter, Steve Mancinelli spoke with great passion but I am afraid he will be enduring disrespect for our established neighbourhoods for some time to come.
I find it ironic that the same issue of The Tri-City News included political donation amounts to mayoral and council candidates in last fall's civic elections. It seems clear the lack of action to limit the sizes of structures in established neighbourhoods is being at least somewhat influenced by the real estate firms and developers on that list of donators.
In 2012, every single member of council voted in favour of increasing allowable lot coverage and most of those people got re-elected. Tied into that 45% allowable lot coverage is the province's highest allowable roofline height of 36 feet from average grade and no final floor area ratio limit.
At pre-election public meetings, some candidates expressed concern about "monster houses." Are they really? We already know the re-elected ones have a view that most people do not want any action, lest they lose resale value.
I submit that they are wrong and most residents of established neighbourhoods are extremely happy with the value they have in good homes that can be paid off, in neighbourhoods that still have trees, shrubs and greenery, with the added comfort of knowing they are not over-taxing our local ecology.
Once Coquitlam has succumbed to 8,500-sq. ft. homes with an additional 7,500 sq. ft. of paving stones, it can never go back.
In 50 years, the value of Coquitlam will be much higher if what is left of our current character is maintained. We have plenty of new developments made for monster structures - build there and leave alone the rest of us normal folk with normal incomes to live in the neighbourhoods we chose.
Ken Holowanky, Coquitlam
