My recent story about some homeowners opposing City of Burnaby sidewalks projects – and their lame reasons for saying no – has prompted some pushback from local residents.
One of them is Norm, a North Burnaby resident who had one of these sidewalk projects on his street.
Judging from the photo attached, the contractor did, um, interesting work.
“I just wanted to let you know I am all for sidewalks, but on the flip side of it as poor planning and engineering is now affecting my home as I am trying to deal with the city on what they said would be a gradual slope onto my driveway and now it is a mountain,” wrote Norm. “So I am asking the city (and the contractors) about the potential water flowing to my house.
“It’s a losing battle for me. Safety is important and all for it but the city has failed to look after me as a citizen and address my concerns about the effects to homeowners from potential downpours of rain.”
Fair enough.
Now that is a fair criticism. The contractor clearly created a pretty steep slope for a driveway so I can see why someone would be unhappy with it.
In my original story, a city staff report outlined a series of arguments used by residents to oppose sidewalks – mainly a loss of parking and landscaping.
The city said, however, that those issues are easily fixed.
As I’ve written before, I’m used to residents literally begging cities to build sidewalks because they feel the roads are unsafe. In Burnaby, however, some residents flip out at the mere idea of change, with the staff report admitting that some of these residents have been successful at “stopping” some projects.
“These issues do arise with the introduction of sidewalks, but sometimes they can be alleviated with design changes if they are known when there is still time to make changes,” says the staff report. “Moreover, staff find that some residents become more supportive of sidewalks when they learn of their advantages such as street lighting, storm water management, and traffic calming. It appears that more sidewalks can be constructed successfully if residents are engaged earlier in the process to determine the issues and are provided education on the benefits of pedestrian infrastructure.”
So, I am listening and softening my stance a bit because, as Norm showed, not all of the work is done to perfection.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
