Re: ‘Ridiculous’: 14 levels of underground parking in proposed 80-storey Burnaby tower draw concerns
Editor:
Coun. Alison Gu is misguided to think people will suddenly stop driving because they live close to a SkyTrain station.
Yes, of course we need alternative means of transportation, but to build two 80-storey towers without sufficient parking would be catastrophic for the current road infrastructure and put undue pressure on surrounding street parking.
What happens when we find out there’s insufficient parking? Do we then take valuable land and build parkades?
I moved into a tower near Brentwood Town Centre in 2016. Since then, 13 new towers have been built (that I can see from my balcony). There has been zero change to traffic in the area that I have noticed. What I have noticed; is an increase of on-street parking overnight. This leads me to conclude that there is a parking shortage.
Leave the parking to the engineers to decide. They use data to determine how much parking is required. The last thing we need to use ‘woke’ propaganda to score points with the electorate!
Rick Ripoli
Regarding the parking issue for an 80-storey build. I believe having more spots is better than less. This is an 80-storey building. Cars are not going away anytime soon in the world, and if so there will be more. Also not everyone takes a SkyTrain to get to work, or cycles, and infrastructure is not always there for everyone in the Lower Mainland.
There is limited parking on streets, so going deeper underground makes more sense, so be it if it takes 10 minutes. People would rather do that knowing they will have a safe spot to park their car than spend countless minutes looking around on the street.
Also, people who can afford these units can definitely afford a parking spot. Lastly, this will go down as an engineering feat in the world of concrete construction, deep excavations, so there will be publicly.
Brook Kennedy
I lived in a six-storey condo in North Vancouver. Parking was one of the reasons we left. It was a new building when we moved in.
The city allotment for parking was one-and-a-half parking stalls per unit. Most of the condos are two- and three-bedroom. We had one stall so we had one car parked in the street. When a new building was built next door, that put a real strain on street parking.
I have four children and they liked to visit but they couldn’t because there was no place to park. You need to think about who will be coming to the building, not just the residents.
David Heywood
I believe in the need for parking. Several reasons for that are, it relieves the pressure on street parking and removes the worry of criminals targeting vehicles.
It provides storage for bicycles, your own and visitors’. Storage of bulky items like camping gear (this is B.C).
Of course, we may convert the parking stall to a secure type of C-Can for our ‘stuff’ given that most modern accommodations are tiny. As well, emergency supplies need storage and this could fill that need.
As a 60-year resident of Burnaby and having a mother born, raised and still residing in Burnaby, we always enjoyed the space provided by larger lots, homes and numerous parks, and decry the small spaces people are crowded into these days.
Jon Pel
I lived in Burnaby on Sussex Avenue paying paying $820 month.
My building was torn down in 2017. I was offered a chance to come back at $900 month but I had to make less than $27,000 year. Well, how can you do that? To this day the new buildings have not been finished. Meanwhile, rents have doubled and tripled.
I thought the new mayor would do something but he has done nothing. I was forced out of Burnaby forever.
Ken McInnis
