Slowing the school zone speeders

Slowing the school zone speeders
City Council briefs by Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published May 10, 2003

Burnaby council's plan to extend the 30 km/h speed limit in school zones past its current 5 p.m. cutoff time appears to be gaining momentum.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities advised Burnaby council this week that the provincial government recently changed the Motor Vehicle Act to extend the school zone hours, as long as those later hours are written on the signs, said a letter from UBCM president Patricia Wallace.
Coun. Doug Evans said he now wants the city traffic safety committee to review which schools might need the later speed limit times established.
"This may not be necessary at every school in the city, but certainly we could do this at a fair number of schools that are already on major thoroughfares," Evans said.
The proposal, which was first presented to the UBCM convention in 2000, was previously endorsed by the B.C. Association of Police Chiefs.

Commuters targeted

Brentwood and Lougheed malls are taking steps to stop SkyTrain commuters from filling up their parking lots. Burnaby council gave tentative approval to a plan that will allow the malls to hire additional security and install a series of metal gates at the mall entrances during the early morning hours, between 5:30 and 9:30 a.m.
According to a city staff report, each of the malls has between 80 to 125 commuters parking cars in their parking lots each working day, taking valuable space away from mall customers and employees.
After the gates are installed, security staff will be hired at each mall to to open one gate for people who need access to the mall parking lots during those hours.
The Brentwood Mall access gate will be located on Willingdon Avenue, and the Lougheed Mall gate will be on Austin Avenue.
20 Vic Management, the company that represents the owners of both malls, said the gated parking lot proposal is supported by a majority of its retail tenants.

RULES CALLED UNFAIR

A North Burnaby businessman wants city council to leave him and his customers alone.
Rajan Krooner of Langara Appliances at 4739 Hastings Street sent a letter to council on April 25 that claims he is allowed to keep appliances around the outside of his store, because he considers that space a 'sales yard.'
"I believe I am not in contravention of the said bylaws," Krooner said in his letter, which was received at council last Monday night. "The appliances are kept in the open and front of the store to give my customers a better view of them and to allow them to inspect them thoroughly before buying them as opposed to being inside the store, where it can become congested from time to time."
Krooner, who has been dealing with city staff for several months after neighbours complained about the state of his property, also took exception to city hall's claim that his business might fit under the criteria of the unsightly premises bylaw.
"It is my position that the appliances are not unsightly in the sense that they are not broken down, wrecked or dismantled. In fact, they are perfectly functioning appliances, some of which are in need of only minor incidental repairs."
Coun. Doug Evans noted that there are several other businesses in the Heights district, fruit stands in particular, which sell their merchandise from the sidewalk.
But city manager Bob Moncur said the main difference with the fruit stands is that they bring their product inside when the shops close down for the evening.
"The biggest problem here is that he doesn't just put them out and bring them in again," Moncur told council. "Here, it's regular storage. They're there all the time. It's that situation which was complained about."
Council agreed to allow staff to continue working with Krooner in the hopes of getting compliance without using the full force of the city bylaws.

No free trade zones

Burnaby will not have be buildings its own free trade zone anytime soon, if the discussion in the city council chambers on Monday night is any indication.
Councilors were unanimous in their opposition to a provincial government proposal that will allow municipal governments to repeal property tax requirements as a way to attract new business.
"This has been described as a race to the bottom," Coun. Nick Volkow said on Monday night, when he learned the proposal had already received first reading in the B.c. legislature.
According to city staff report, section 226 of Bill 14, the Community Charter Act, will allow municipal governments to give property tax exemptions to light or heavy industrial business for a maximum of ten years if they meet any of three requirements:
* the industry is new to B.C.;
* the industry needs financial help to expand or construct an improvement; or
* the industry needs assistance to continue operating.
Mayor Derek Corrigan said he could understand that some rural or northern communities might be tempted to use tax exemptions to attract business to their financially struggling regions, however he also said it would be a slippery slope if industrial tax exemptions started to be common in the Lower Mainland.
"If we or any other city venture down the path of enticing businesses with tax exemptions, then we'd be putting ourselves in peril," said Coun. Dan Johnston, chair of the city finance committee. "I'd recommend we leave that one alone."
And Volkow said the proposal could turn some B.C. communities into a Canadian equivalent of "maquiladoras" - free trade zones that are common in the northern part of Mexico.

Terasen supports music

There will be a new name behind the sponsor of the free Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert in Deer Lake Park this summer.
Trans Mountain Pipeline, the company that has paid for the popular concert in the park since they started 15 years ago, is among the group of companies that recently changed its name to Terasen.
Phillipe Reicher, manager of public and community affairs for the newly renamed firm, was at city council on Monday night to outline the corporate restructuring and make a commitment to continue the concert series.
The concert started with just a few hundred attendees for the first few years, but has since grown into one of the most popular free events in the city, attracting upwards of 8,000 people.
This year, the free concert will be held on Friday, July 25, one day before the fourth annual Burnaby Blues Festival. Mark your calendar, and don't forget to bring a flashlight! (It gets awfully dark after sunset.)

Airport noise?

Officials from the Vancouver International Airport Authority received less than a warm welcome from Burnaby city council this week, when tried to garner support for plans to build a rapid transit line out to richmond.
Mayor Derek Corrigan, who would rather see the region build a new SkyTrain line to Coquitlam, tried to get the airport officials to admit that their Airport Improvement Fee will likely be kept in place to pay some of the costs of the proposed $1.4 billion rapid transit service to Sea Island.
Bob Cowan, senior vice-president of engineering for the airport authority, said the airport is committed to paying $300 million towards the rapid transit line, which he described as necessary despite a drop in airline travel over the past year due to the war in Iraq and the fear of SARS in Canada.
Cowan noted the airport used to cost money to operate, but it generates over $170 million in its own revenues, and even pays $66 million in annual rent to Ottawa.
While the mayor expressed concerns about the costs of rapid transit, Coun. Dan Johnston thanked the authority for installing a new airplane noise monitoring station in Burnaby.
Johnston, who lives on the south slope, said airplane noise has generally decreased over the past five years, however, it is still often very loud around midnight on Saturdays. "You'd swear it was a bomber flying over," he said.