Editor:
Recently, a letter was circulated to the residents of Brentlawn Drive by the City of Burnaby as regards changes to the parking restrictions on Brentlawn Drive. Currently, a resident may advise the bylaw enforcement of a non-resident that is parking in front of their property for more than three hours during the day and the bylaw enforcement officer will issue a ticket to the offender.
Residents may currently park in front of their own homes, unticketed, 24 hours a day.
Brentlawn has had a long history of traffic issues with city hall relating to excessive traffic rat-running through the neighbourhood, to the near 20 hours daily of Coast Mountain buses lumbering through the neighbourhood essentially empty but for a couple of runs in the morning and late in the day.
Add to this burden imposed on the residents that are now having to endure daily parking in front of their homes to the construction workers in the nearby burgeoning condo tower development that has despoiled the views and blocks the late afternoon sun for nearby residents.
Add to this the further insult that now residents of Brentlawn Drive will be unable to park in front of their own homes for more than three hours at a time between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. or be subject to a parking violation fine. What sort of solution is this? It serves no one and has been poorly thought out by mayor and council and inflicts a callous disregard on the taxpaying homeowners on Brentlawn Drive.
Making Brentlawn Drive a restricted parking street will only force the construction workers that park on Brentlawn further into the neighbourhood as the parking restrictions only apply to Brentlawn Drive.
As these homes in Brentwood Park were built in the 1950s, many homes only have a single-car garage. Multiple cars cannot be accommodated on these properties and this will leave the innocent residents running a self-serve valet parking service in order to avoid paying expensive parking fines.
Darcy Olson, Burnaby
