Editor:
I am a 30-year-old resident of Boundary Bay. I wish to express my concern regarding the Southlands development proposal.
I have been a Tsawwassen resident for 25 years. I have seen development of not only my current residence, but also numerous other projects. I am a Boundary Bay resident and I am proud of this fact.
This being said, I am also a huge advocate for Tsawwassen as a whole. We all live in an extremely beautiful community that stands behind its morals of family values and safety for one's property and family. Over the years I have seen a great amount of change for the betterment of our town. We have great restaurants, shopping and recreational facilities for old and young alike.
We have built a community of very proud people both in the Bay and Tsawwassen itself. We have a very low crime rate, great schools and a level of safety that allows us to live a lifestyle few have the opportunity to ever experience.
This being said, I have read the other letters that have been written and have taken into account their views and wish to express my own on this matter without prejudice. I truly and 100 per cent believe that Tsawwassen has hit a plateau in the amount of housing and residential development that is sustainable within our community.
Our restaurants are full every night and the local businesses are thriving. I understand the need for growth and stagnation is an issue that cannot be over looked, but at what cost to the community does this growth occur?
When I refer to our community as hitting a plateau, I refer to the plain and simple truth that underlies this entire argument over development. We simply do not have the infrastructure to support such a project within our community, be it the Bay or Tsawwassen.
Even if the development were to be placed between Forest by the Bay and the Terrace, we still have a massive issue, which in my mind is the unsolvable of a lack of arterial roads to support such growth.
56th street is the sole means of entering and exiting our community other than the 52nd Street hill. This will not change, nor can it. No matter how many homes are placed within our community, we simply cannot support the amount of vehicle traffic that would occur post and during construction.
A potential eight years of construction crews, boom trucks, excavators, dump trucks and everything else that comes along with a development of this grandeur would be catastrophic to our way of life as a whole.
I would hope that our community would see that further development would not only hurt Boundary Bay, but it would hurt us all and I urge everyone in our beautiful city to stand up and have an opinion on this matter.
Without such opinions for or against, we just might find ourselves living in a constant state of construction for an extended period of time, which I truly believe will not only cause more harm than good, but also lower the lifestyle that those who have found this great community have become accustomed to.
If nothing else, have a voice in this matter. Only we, the people of Tsawwassen and Boundary Bay, can stop what will ultimately in my mind be the downfall of our community's way of life.
Parker Maksym
