They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Joni Mitchell’s lyrics to Big Yellow Taxi are what come to mind when Carol Haar walks or drives by Parkland Fuel Corporation’s new parking lot.
Last April, Parkland announced it had purchased the Burnaby refinery from Chevron as part of a $1.5-billion deal.
Months later, the company got to work on building a new parking lot on the north side of Penzance Drive, directly across from North Gamma Avenue, to support the high traffic volumes anticipated during February’s refinery shutdown.
Every few years, the refinery is shut down for six to eight weeks to allow crews to do equipment maintenance. The next one is scheduled for February.
According to a Parkland neighbourhood newsletter, there can be up to 600 additional contractors on every shift during a shutdown and the new parking lot accommodates up to 377 vehicles.
But Haar and many of her neighbours on North Gamma Avenue – who have lived there anywhere between 20 and 40 years – are not impressed with the paving project. They argue the clearcutting of several hundred trees has changed the skyline – what once used to be a thick forest is now a “huge gash,” according to the group.
“It’s an eyesore,” Haar told the NOW. “You’d drive down in the summer and you’d cry, watching all these trees come down. It was really sad. ... Chainsaw after chainsaw, tree after tree.”
“I really don’t think, even though they own the land, that they should be able to create such havoc without any community input whatsoever,” said Laurie Baker, another local resident.
Diane Yard said folks living on Gamma didn’t know about Parkland’s parking lot plans until they read it in the company’s quarterly newsletter, which they say arrived later than normal.
“In August, I came back from holidays and a friend walked me down here and I went, ‘What?’ We didn’t even know (the parking lot) was coming in,” she said.
“It was buried in the back of the newsletter – ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to be building a parking lot,’” added Haar. “We had no idea what scale it was going to be.”
The residents fear more parking means more traffic along residential streets like Gamma, and more noise.
“We have semi-trailers coming down the street, and there’s a wimpy speed bump that does nothing to slow anyone down,” noted Baker. “I’d like to see the proper traffic control in place. I’d like to see the Parkland traffic not be able to use a local residential street, which means it has to start at Hastings, and people have to not come down Gamma at all. They have to go on Willingdon.”
Lighting is another issue.
“We’re going to be looking at parking lots and lights, including night lighting,” said Baker.
Kel Coulson, a spokesperson for Parkland, told the NOW the parking lot will only be used during shutdowns and is not intended for daily parking. That’s because when the lot is in use, the company has to bus contractors over to the refinery given the distance between the two sites, she said.
As for traffic control, Coulson noted an island has been put in place at Penzance and Gamma. Anyone coming down Gamma has to turn right on Penzance and can’t go straight into the Parkland parking lot, and vice versa, anyone coming from Parkland’s lot can’t go straight onto Gamma and must turn right or left.
She said Parkland instructs contractors to use Willingdon Avenue to get to Penzance, not Gamma.
“We’re looking at how we identify those (non-compliant) people and then educate them.
“In terms of the vegetation removal, obviously trees are always very sensitive to the community, so we’ve been working with the City of Burnaby on a replanting plan,” said Coulson. (The plan includes planting 228 trees plus 200 saplings on the sloped portions.)
She added Parkland wants to go beyond doing the bare minimum and is interested in speaking with any residents whose view has been obstructed.
“If there’s certain species of trees and locations, we’ll work with the constraints of the site,” she said. “The intention is to work one on one with them, to say, ‘How does it look from your house?’ and ‘Where we can put vegetation that’s meaningful to you?’ as opposed to us just planting.”
Parkland is also looking at using dark sky lighting, which directs the light down, according to Coulson.
“When the parking lot is in use, we’ll have to use lighting in order for it to be safe and secure for people to leave the site, but there will be minimum lights when it’s not in use,” she said.
Coulson encouraged anyone with concerns to call Parkland at 604-257-4040.
“Let us know because we are committed to getting back to everybody.”
As for the delayed newsletter, Coulson said it was not intentional.
“It was a delay on our side. When we were going through the transition, to new ownership, we were getting different people to review it, so we just weren’t able to get it out on time.”
