The Editor,
Re: Burnaby Heights businesses petition against bus rapid transit on Hastings (Jan. 15, 2024)
As a resident living on Halifax Street on the “Alternate BRT Purple Line Route,” it’s time to start calling this proposed “Alternate Route” the “HALIFAX STREET, DOUGLAS ROAD, EAST 1ST AVENUE, BOUNDARY ROAD Alternate Route.”
We need to stop hiding the harsh reality of this proposed alternate route in the vague “Boundary Road” name, which is greatly misleading to readers.
This Alternate Route will permanently remove parking on Halifax Street, Douglas Road, East 1st Avenue and Boundary Road, and will directly affect the lives of at least six residential strata projects on Halifax and Douglas equalling more than 1,600 strata lots, and easily more than 3,000 people who live there.
This includes the Amica Retirement home that has no onsite parking for visitors. These noted properties have no back alleys. There are no city owned parking lots to use. All access for services, garage pickup, recycling pickup, parking access, and building access are all directly off of these affected streets.
Residents with oversized vehicles, work vehicles, second vehicles, visitors, and trades people all have to park on the streets. During day hours we all pay at the parking meters for the privilege of this essential parking.
There is absolutely NO alternate parking available to residences if the parking on Halifax and Douglas is permanently removed from the street.
In addition, the strata developments on Buchanan and Rosser also use Halifax Street for overnight parking, as there is no parking at all on Lougheed Highway, and minimal parking on these side streets.
The affected strip of East 1st Avenue has more than 40 commercial and industrial properties that have easily more than 100 businesses.
The majority of these properties have no alleys, and their commercial driveways for access, services, garbage, recycling, deliveries and customers are all directly off of East 1st Avenue. Large trucks need to back into the loading docks off the street, all deliveries are from the street, tow trucks back cars into the service bays from the street, and garbage bins are staged on the street for pick up on this very busy “working” street.
The only visitor and customer parking is on the street in front of the businesses. Service trucks are parked overnight on the street. It would be impossible for most of these businesses on East 1st Avenue to function if the street parking in front of their properties was permanently removed and their access impeded.
There are at least 40 properties on the east side of Boundary Road that will be affected. Approximately half of these are residential properties and the other half commercial. The commercial properties are mostly multi-tenanted commercial properties. The Vancouver side of Boundary Road has many businesses and residential housing as well. While this strip does have side streets, some alleys, and some on-site parking for some properties, they will be affected by the permanent removal of street parking and these are hundreds of commercial businesses on this strip of Boundary Road alone.
The Burnaby Heights businesses recently petitioned city council against the Purple Line going up the logical bus route of Willingdon and Hastings, in lieu of the Halifax, Douglas, East First, Boundary Road Route, because their 360 businesses are worried about losing 346 street parking spots they use during business hours.
Hastings already has hundreds of free city managed parking spaces at the ends of each block. These Hastings properties do not have driveways onto Hastings but instead have City owned and maintained accessible back alleys for garbage, recycling, staff parking, access, deliveries and services.
They have free non-metered parking on all the side streets at every block, and when their cash registers are closed at the end of the day, these businesses go home and have no use for the street parking at all.
In contrast, the Halifax Street, Douglas Road, East 1st Avenue, Boundary Road Route uses its street parking twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Most the properties have driveways directly onto the street with no back alleys. There are more people living on this route than on East Hastings, and equally or more businesses to be affected.
There is no alternate parking available, no free city owned parking lots on the end of each block, and to top it off, there is absolutely no economic or sociological benefit to having this bus route go down this alternate route as we already have the SkyTrain at Brentwood Mall and at Gilmore Ave to get us around.
We are not simply the Boundary Road alternate route, to be considered for political reasons, and mentioned in passing.
We are not simply a dotted purple line on a map the City staff drew as an alternate route. We are the HALIFAX STREET, DOUGLAS ROAD, EAST 1st AVENUE, BOUNDARY ROAD Alternate Route.
We are thousands of voices that are, unfortunately, not represented by a paid publicist like Burnaby Heights has working for them.
My hope is that the very least people will do, while writing Burnaby NOW to support the East Hastings preferred route for the BRT, and while telling city council that the Hastings Route is the only route that makes any sense at all, is to refer to the alternate route as what it is, the HALIFAX STREET, DOUGLAS ROAD, EAST 1ST AVENUE, BOUNDARY ROAD Alternative Route.
Readers working and living on this route need to know what is on the table so they can speak out and be heard.
Thank you.
- Morgan Nicholsfigueiredo, Burnaby
