Dear Editor:
I would love to ask Mayor Derek Corrigan and council about approvals for high-density living spaces in the city, specifically the condo complexes currently being built on Claude Avenue, a narrow road ignored up until now, that runs parallel to Canada Way.
Who thought it would be a good idea to OK three complexes at 152, two-, three- and four-bedroom suites per complex that is taking up most of the land from Rayside to Sperling Avenue? Canada Way leads to the freeway around the Burnaby Lake area, one of the most, if not the most congested bottlenecks during the rush hour(s).
If you only had two people per condo working, the addition to the morning rush hours would be almost another 912 cars going and coming from work in the already impossible traffic jams. Now, if you will, add the people from the subdivision on the cul de sac next to the new condos, I estimate at 24 and the folks from the large neighbourhood in the Rayside area, maybe 50, all trying to go down Claude because they can’t make a left-hand turn off of Rayside.
So basically there’s one way in and one way out.
Imagine the mosque already there on the corner of Sperling and Canada Way during prayers on Friday mornings. Having a very large congregation, there is always been a traffic jam on Fridays from people trying to find parking spaces. Throw in the condo workers’ vehicles lining Claude and Sperling during Monday to Friday work hours, and last but not least throw in the fire trucks stuck in the traffic jam and being detained instead of getting out to their life-saving jobs. Brilliant, Mayor Corrigan!
The parking is so bad that some are attempting to park in private driveways even when residents cars are there. The bylaw guys do not want to come down to the mess anymore and the firefighters are frustrated to the point where you can see it seeping out in the body language of these great guys when they are kicking people out of their parking lot.
Once the other two complexes currently being built open up on the same land you have 912 people (conservatively speaking ) moving down Claude every morning, 50 workers parking their vehicles, dump trucks lining Sperling and Claude waiting to drop their loads, others on their way out to get another load, three fire trucks, sirens screaming to get everyone to pull over (really?), and 100 parishioners trying to make prayers at the mosque on time, and only one way to get out at the lights on Sperling and Canada Way, and a partridge in a pear tree. You do the math Mayor Corrigan!
Now you have three lights until you can get on to the freeway which is already jammed and you have a back up right back to the complexes. Gee I wonder why it’s such a mess? Just like the old adage says, “You can’t get there from here.”
I and a lot of other neighbours would like to know what the Burnaby engineers are planning to do about this please.
Linda J Shaw, Burnaby
