To the editor;
Re: “Queue-jumping developers in Clayton rankle city councillor,” Feb. 13
It is very disappointing to hear that council has once again only looked after themselves and the developers and have totally forgotten about the residents who live in the Cloverdale/Clayton area.
On numerous occasions, I have sent emails to the planning and development department, engineering, and so on and no one responds back and it seems to me like no one cares.
Coun. Marvin Hunt said at the Land Use council meeting that Option 1 in the corporate report was in line with what the city has done for many years. What Hunt fails to recognize is what the city has been doing for many years in the Cloverdale/Clayton area has been a complete failure. When allowing high density developments composed of RF-9/RF-9C lots so developers can make money, the city forgets to provide the public amenities such as parks, pools and recreation centers, especially when there is no NCP in place.
Not only do high density developments cause a privacy issue for the neighbours, parking has been the number one problem and complaint.
Furthermore, we as the community association representing all the residents have stood ground on the fact that we do not want to see anymore RF-9/RF-9C lots. We were told a few years ago that no more applications for RF-9/RF-9C lots would be accepted yet in the last three years we are still seeing applications being approved. As per the residents’ request, we will only support, as a minimum, RF-12 developments for Cloverdale/Clayton to reduce the unnecessary high densification and congestion.
I ask that all the Cloverdale/Clayton residents send their objections directly to the council’s office either by mail, in person or by email to cityclerks@surrey.ca so council will put these applications on hold until an NCP is approved for the north area of East Clayton.
For consultation/developments to be successful, it must be done in good faith. Therefore, we request that when such development applications are received by the city, they should contact us or refer the developer to us so we can work together to help eliminate potential problems such as parking. If the city wants to continue down this path then they should oblige the developers to allocate money to help pay for pools/skating arenas/gyms/natural parks/parking stalls.
I strongly recommend to city council that they take the residents of Cloverdale/Clayton seriously. Housing development in this area is a serious issue.
Having said this, residents have strongly suggested that during this year’s civic election, they will show their disappointment.
If anyone wants to contact us, please visit our website at Cloverdalecommunity.org and then click on Contact Us. You can send an email to one of the directors or complete the online comments form.
Mike Bola
President