Editor, The News:
Re: Development would bring 350 units to Pitt Meadows.
Pitt Meadows is at a vital crossroads in time.
We are about to embark upon life-changing city design and development around an underpass and overpasses for CP Rail, allowing our vehicles to move freely without holdup, and hopefully our city will be working smart, and hard, and listening closely to residents to get the best design and noise mitigation available from what is the biggest development and change we have seen.
Also we seem to be pushing ahead with designs on the north Lougheed Highway development, including an access road north of the highway that services this development (and by drawings I have seen, does not act as a bypass to protect farm vehicles, but begins at Harris Road and ends near the car dealership, or perhaps connects with what is essentially Park Road).
I noticed in addition to this, there is now a 350-unit proposal for housing at Harris Rd. and Lougheed Hwy. going before council, and this conceptual design shows no sign of any advanced traffic management at the intersection to relieve what is now a backed up, snarled mess.
Previous iterations of advanced traffic interchanges used that particular corner as part of an interchange.
Although I am sure our planning department has sufficient experience for small residential developments and minor commercial ones, this is of a scale, and of an impact, that will require not just great consideration of the nature of our community, farmland, and the needs of residents and increasing traffic, but must also build a truly sustainable and livable community.
It will require designs that will embrace our farming community and take into consideration all of these projects’ gargantuan environmental impact at a time when we would be blind not to hear or see that humanity itself is on the cusp of needing life and planet-saving courses of action.
I am sure I am not alone in needing to see that we will be bringing in proven experts in all facets of design and construction, and tying in a great number of extremely important factors, including an advanced traffic interchange at Harris Rd. and Lougheed Hwy, a pedestrian overpasses either side of Harris Rd., as well as environmental considerations.
Really, if we are ‘The Natural Place,’ this is the time and place to really take it seriously.
We have a tremendous opportunity here, but it will take not just thought, money and advanced design to make everything work together for all of Pitt Meadows, but real pioneering ‘guts’ to retain our heritage, support and maintain our farming backbone, and make Pitt Meadows a truly walkable, livable, and environmentally forward-thinking city that is a pleasure to live in, drive and walk through.
Darlene Mercer
Pitt Meadows
