Zoning short by centimetres

Council briefs by Dan Hilborn
Published Sept. 16, 2006


The 20-year owners of a home on Canada Way have asked Burnaby city council to relax its zoning bylaws after learning their property is a mere 4.5 cm, or about two inches, too short to be redeveloped into a duplex.

David and Sabita Porter said they need the relaxed rules because they would like to sell their home, and retire to a smaller property elsewhere in the city.

Porter's problem is that his home is located in the R5 zoning district, which requires a minimum 60-foot frontage before the property can be converted into a duplex. Porter's property has a front dimension of 59.85 feet.

"Our property, as well as many other similar properties, are now only worth lot value on Canada Way," he told city council at its Sept. 11 meeting. "The miniscule shortage in the front dimensions has left us wringing our hands. We find ourselves between the devil and the deep sea and a rock and a hard place."

While city council was sympathetic to their plight and agreed to send the matter to its civic development committee, the Porters were also urged to try and buy a sliver of land off one of their immediate neighbours.

Coun. Lee Rankin said that he supports the duplex proposal because two-family properties are more affordable than single family homes.

OIL CLEANUP NEEDED

Summer oil spills in Burrard Inlet and on the Squamish estuary highlight the need for new legislation that forces polluters to pay for the rescue and rehabilitation of injured wildlife, says Burnaby resident Gail Forbes.

In a letter to city council dated July 23, Forbes said she was "appalled" to learn that shipping companies are not automatically charged the costs of cleaning up in the event they are found responsible for any environmental damage.

Forbes said the Hong Kong company responsible for the July 4 spill in Burrard Inlet only paid for the cleanup of 50 birds, even though hundreds of other birds were also affected.

"They should have been forced to pay fully for the rescue and cleanup of the oiled birds," she wrote. "Oil on a bird's feathers is fatal to the bird. ... Those responsible for these types of acts should be held accountable and should be forced to clean up their mistakes, whatever the cost."

Council received her letter without comment.

HARPER THANKS CORRIGAN

Mayor Derek Corrigan has received a personal letter of thanks from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his support on the Chinese head tax issue.

"I would like to extend my personal thanks for your kind letter of support regarding our government's public and formal apology for the unjust Chinese head tax," said the letter, received at city council on Aug. 8. "This important gesture represents an honourable solution to a historic injustice."

Council and Corrigan received the letter without comment.

HUMPS RAISE CONCERNS

Why has the City of Burnaby installed speed humps on Walker Street, a route that was once declared an arterial collector street?

That was the question posed to city council recently by Rosewood Street resident Louise Hearty, who believes the speed humps are unfairly slowing down traffic in a neighbourhood that didn't have a speeding problem to begin with.

"I thought the purpose of collector streets was for traffic to feed from them onto other streets," Hearty wrote.

"Every person I've spoken to in the neighbourhood finds these humps very inconvenient and slowing traffic too much, but it is too far to go to Canada Way and the traffic is bad there as well."

Hearty was subsequently told by city staff that the speed humps are intended to divert traffic onto nearby Sperling Avenue.

ZERO CRASH MONTH

Watch your driving during the month of October, and help the city of Burnaby win the Zero Crash Month challenge.

ICBC has informed city hall that based on past experience and statistical averages, Burnaby residents are expected to be involved in a total 1,943 automobile crashes in the month of October.

But if Burnaby residents can reduce that number by a greater amount than other B.C. cities of comparable population (40,001 and up), then city hall will win a $35,000 road safety grant.