The Editor,
As residents who choose to live in Steveston because of its maritime heritage and active commercial fishing industry, we are deeply concerned with how Richmond Council is confusing merely slowing development with conservation.
While we applaud the city for recognizing Steveston's unique character and establishing the Steveston Conservation Area, a walk through the village in 2013 is depressing when we think back to what the same area looked like only 10 years ago.
As a result of surrendering to lobbying by developers, Council has allowed the heritage character of the village to be chipped away, one brick at a time, and there seems to be no end in sight.
A case in point is the "vision" put forward at the Steveston Village Conservation Strategy open house last weekend. While we are pleased with an amendment to reduce the maximum building height from three to two storeys, we are alarmed that the proposal includes a conspicuous possibility for exceptions. Can you think of a single developer who will not relentlessly lobby Council for every conceivable exception? There should be no exceptions.
Building more than two storeys will block sunlight to the street, lead to more traffic congestion and destroy the historic small-town atmosphere of the village.
Furthermore, if the Strategy includes the possibility of exceptions, are those of us who are intent on maintaining the heritage character of the village going to have to fight these developers every time a building is replaced?
The purpose of a strategy should be to bring predictability and stability, not to provide for exceptions that will most certainly become the rule.
The other problem with the city's proposals is the entire "Bayview & Chatham Proposed Long-Term Streetscape Visions." Unlike the Strategy, the Streetscape Visions has no merit whatsoever. Essentially, the city is proposing to spend nearly $4 million of our tax dollars to rip up the streets and side-walks in order to provide for 50 more parking spaces and wider sidewalks! While we are pleased the city is active in helping with the summer parking problem in the village core, this "Vision" is no vision at all.
We have good news for Council and the taxpayers of Richmond: we do not need wider sidewalks, and between the existing under-building parking places, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery lot and the Steveston Harbour Authority lot, there are more than enough spaces for employees to park in order to make room for shoppers to park in the village core. Besides, why is council so obsessed with manicuring every single square foot of Steveston? We happen to like the rustic atmosphere here.
We understand the need for communities to grow and adapt, but that growth should not come at the expense of eroding one of the last tiny heritage districts in the Lower Mainland.
Steveston's heritage is worth fighting for.
Robert Kiesman, Ralph Turner, Richmond
