Editor,
My wife and I moved to White Rock nine years ago. We were attracted by the cultural heritage and "The city by the sea" personality of White Rock.
A large part of the personality and charm of the city is the existing community hub on the city hall block. Now there is a proposal by the city council to abandon and sell large parts of the city hub (to what use heaven only knows) in favour of a sterile, shared space, highrise building in a congested part of the uptown highrise area.
The city council says there is inadequate space in our city hall. The city hall property is already paid for, and anyone who takes the time to walk around the perimeter of the city hall building will see there is lots of room to build a larger city hall. Whatever we chose will cost money, but by rebuilding the city hall on the city hall property, I think the city's heritage and personality will be better preserved.
Some of the things being considered are to relocate the cenotaph (our memorial to the sacrifices of our service people), to move the library to a new hub, to move the existing daycare to a new hub, to include a Youth Foundry centre, to include a refugee processing centre and to include affordable housing.
The city city hall is the heart of the city, and the cenotaph should be kept in the heart of the city, not moved away for expedience sake.
The library is a beautiful and functional building. I see no reason to abandon this building for a different location. The existing daycare facility has functioned very well where it is and provides open air green space to the children; the proposed new hub, because of the proposed location, would not have these features.
Youth Foundry centres are for helping young people find their way in life, but a location for one in White Rock would be better close to the bus exchange in the highrise area. A refugee processing centre is for processing refugees, and providing initial support and temporary housing to them.
On one hand council is considering building affordable housing for our existing population and on the other hand they are considering a refugee process centre that would compete for this affordable housing space.
As for affordable housing, Bill 44 doesn't say the city has to undertake the financial burden of building affordable housing. It just says the city has to allow social housing to be built. Could providing affordable housing not be accomplished with reasonable zoning allowances?
And as for council's openness to the city of White Rock, they have put out an online survey about what people would like in a city hub. There are several categories in this survey, but the one question missing is where would we citizens like the city hub to be located. We aren't being given that choice on this survey. Why is the opinion of the citizens on this matter of location not included? We deserve better.
Ray White, White Rock
