To the editor:
I live in the beautiful Central Manufactured Home Park on Casorso Road. We have a considerate landlord and efficient park management.
This big business pressure that councillors Blanleil and Stack and Mayor Gray promote, proves that they are not at all in need of affordable, comfortable housing.
Thank God we had a social leadership under Mayor Shepherd for a few years. That is when some correct legislation was produced that made money-hungry developers provide necessary policies to protect Kelowna citizens who will be kicked out of their precious homes.
Absolutely no other residential package can replace a manufactured home on a rented plot that meets the needs of those of us who are not blessed with multiple thousands of dollars for today’s housing alternatives.
Mayor Gray’s statement has just placed a death knell on this wonderful, popular housing alternative and the future of manufactured home parks in Kelowna. There are thousands of tax payers living in these parks—millions in North America.
To add to this dilemma in our Mission community is the Blanleil leadership of traffic provisions for the South Kelowna area. Instead of providing a raised bypass over Harvey Avenue from the W.R. Bennett Bridge, flowing east to Gordon Drive, we now have all south-bound traffic turning down Pandosy/Lakeshore Road.
As was done to Harvey Avenue and the horrible traffic problems there, we will immediately need multiple hundreds of millions of tax payers’ dollars to patch inefficient traffic problems to service this Westcorp promotion.
Please Coun. Blanleil, reconsider your leadership of solving the Harvey Avenue traffic solution. The north end corridor is great but extremely expensive and many years in the future as Mayor Gray has admitted.
Many thanks to the three councillors, Singh, Given and Hobson, who voted against this proposal as presented. At least they can see the foolishness that is happening with extremely larger amounts of traffic driving through residential communities, past/through the hospital and the present Mission shopping and business community.
Gordon Drive was developed to handle this future traffic expansion. Too bad that our councillors refused to listen to the traffic engineers and envision the future by providing a high speed overpass from the bridge to Gordon Drive, giving back Harvey Avenue to the citizens of Kelowna.
Will Harvey Avenue traffic problems be repeated in this new development?
E B Patterson,
Kelowna
