The City of Burnaby has big goals when it comes to building new sidewalks because they offer safety for people and fit in with its goals to fight climate change.
But those goals are being derailed to a certain degree by entitled homeowners who fight some of these proposed projects for dubious reasons.
The city has a special council meeting set for 3 p.m. on Monday to see if council will approve a sidewalk implementation process aimed at getting more of these residents to buy into projects that make this community a safer place.
The city’s target for new sidewalks, according to a staff report about the proposed sidewalk process, is 30 kilometres per year, but for 2021 only 22 kilometres are expected to be completed due to pushback from some residents.
As I’ve written before, I’m used to residents literally begging cities to build sidewalks because they feel the roads are unsafe. In Burnaby, however, some residents flip out at the mere idea of change, with the staff report admitting that some of these residents have been successful at “stopping” some projects.
Take, for instance, a group of Blaine Drive residents who told me they would “fight it to the end” about a city sidewalk project – and ended up getting their way when the city took the coward's way out.
And what are these vital reasons for opposing adding a sidewalk so kids and adults don’t have to walk on a road?
“Residents opposed to sidewalks often cite loss of parking, loss of landscaping, and increased maintenance as reasons for their opposition,” reads the staff report.
Wait, what?
Parking, once again, pops up in another ugly way. I get that some neighbourhoods don’t have a lot of parking, but we need to encourage more pedestrian travel, not less. Also, people can still park next to a sidewalk.
As for “loss of landscaping” – that’s a ridiculous reason to not improve safety on a street.
“These issues do arise with the introduction of sidewalks, but sometimes they can be alleviated with design changes if they are known when there is still time to make changes,” says the staff report. “Moreover, staff find that some residents become more supportive of sidewalks when they learn of their advantages such as street lighting, storm water management, and traffic calming. It appears that more sidewalks can be constructed successfully if residents are engaged earlier in the process to determine the issues and are provided education on the benefits of pedestrian infrastructure.”
The report adds that landscaping features like hedges can easily be relocated.
It’s kind of silly that the city has to draw up a new process just to calm down some homeowners, but here we are. Ultimately, the city has to do what’s right to fight climate change and sometimes that means annoying a few homeowners by showing more backbone.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
