Tree clearing raises ire

By Dan Hilborn
Published June 14, 2006


A former chair of the Vancouver parks commission is calling on Burnaby city hall to give local homeowners some kind of official notice when major developments are about to affect their neighbourhoods.

Laura McDiarmid appeared at city hall on Monday night to say that she was shocked when a "forest of trees" was clearcut recently from behind the southeast Burnaby home she bought two years ago.

McDiarmid told the councillors that Vancouver city hall does a better job of notifying residents of changes in their neighbourhoods.

"If any development happens in Kitsilano, where I still have a condo, I get five letters from the city," McDiarmid said. "Here I didn't get anything. Why isn't there resident notification?"

The trees - which McDiarmid described as a "lovely, pristine forest" - stood on a dedicated lane allowance that separated McDiarmid's home on Elwell Street from another residential property on Rosewood Avenue that was owned by an elderly woman who passed away recently.

"One of the things I loved about my neighbourhood was the forest behind my house," said McDiarmid, who served two terms on the Vancouver parks board, from 1996 to 2002. "Ours was probably the most wooded area."

The first hint McDiarmid received that the trees might be disappearing came after the other property was sold and McDiarmid overheard someone say, "There goes the neighbourhood," from over the fence.

The Rosewood Avenue property has since been sold, and two new homes will be built on the lot, McDiarmid said.

"My major concern is with the process," she said in a letter to council. "What I am most upset about is that the City of Burnaby did not have the common decency to inform the neighbours affected by these changes that the development was about to occur."

McDiarmid also said the impact on her property is compounded by the loss of the trees, which has exposed an older fence that needs to be replaced. McDiarmid said she recently spent $20,000 renovating her kitchen and can't afford to replace the fence.

"I'm asking for any kind of assistance the city can give me," she said. "Our neighbourhood is being faced with a number of drastic changes and I think it's overkill, really."

Council agreed to have staff look into the request, but Mayor Derek Corrigan hinted that McDiarmid should not get her hopes up too high.

"I'm afraid other people have the right to develop their property, too," he said.