My specific issues… likely different than yours…
Posted on | February 18, 2009 |
My specific issues… likely different than yours…
Property Taxes, Traffic, Vandalism, Pollution
1. Council suggested we may need to hire a by-law officer.
2. They have proposed a budget for the by-law officer.
3. If a by-law officer is hired, I’m assuming taxes will have to cover the cost.
4. There is third party information regarding Policing for Port Moody and Coquitlam RCMP for review and consideration by SD 43 and Anmore.
5. Port Moody hired an additional officer for Heritage High School?
6. Port Moody Police have said they won’t respond to Heritage Middle School, it’s an RCMP issue. That they may cover until RCMP arrives if they are in the area.
7. Council has already complained about poor police service.
8. The City of Coquitlam has completed a School Traffic survey on a School-by-School location. To my knowledge this resource has not been used.
9. SD43 Middle Schools have traffic issues when children are dropped off and picked up with or without snow.
10. The proposed Hummingbird access is worse than most existing Middle School Access streets I’ve driven.
11. Anmore’s own traffic consultant approached me at the SD43 meeting and thanked me for asking the question regarding road access. He explained to me that Hummingbird was not designed to handle this type of traffic, that the road is only 20 feet wide, and he went on to say that it was only built to service the homes on Dogwood.
12. If the road needs to be up-graded or widened, who will pay for the road upgrades and regular maintenance? Will this increase our taxes?
13. More parents are driving children to school these days.
14. Fire Department. Does anyone know who will provide coverage for the proposed Middle School if it is built? Would there be an additional cost to Anmore residents?
15. Port Moody and Anmore have a strained relationship, and Port Moody has publicly said they have concerns about the proposed school.
While I am admittedly not an expert on these issues, I did live for 18 years a block from a SD43 Middle School and have lived through the traffic issues during the week and during weekend use. Parents parking across the end of our driveway, additional litter, speeding parents rushing their kids to School while several times almost hitting my children in a well marked cross walk with my wife.
Am I upset that the proposed school will be in my “new” neighborhood? YES
Very early on I did contact Mayor, Council, and School District 43 regarding my initial concerns and unanswered questions.
So, in the absence of response to questions asked and meetings promised but missed, one is left to draw their own conclusions and look for answers elsewhere.
My big concern is while everyone is so excited about building a new school that one day we will wake up after the property has been rezoned and realize that Anmore will bear the entire additional ongoing costs while only using less than 20% of the services. That SD43 and Port Moody will download costs to “us”.
I hope I’m totally wrong.
My next concern is that in spite of the “public” process it looks and sounds like Mayor and Council made up their minds well before any public input, and the “public process” is a means to the end. Build a School.
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For more information regarding the proposed building of Heritage Middle School please contact:
Village of Anmore - Anmore Mayor Hal Weinberg, Councilor John McEwen, Councilor Kerri Palmer Isaak, Councilor Mario Piamonte, Anmore Councilor Chris Sedergreen. 2697 Sunnyside Road, Anmore, BC, V3H 5G9
School District 43 – SD43 - Tom Grant Superintendant of Schools, Dan Derpak, Assistant Superintendant of Schools, Holly Butterfield School Trustee. 550 Poirier Street, Coquitlam, B.C. V3J 6A7
Comments
11 Responses to “My specific issues… likely different than yours…”
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February 18th, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
Your concerns are very well-put. It doesn’t sound like you are a resident that just wants to keep the nice trees by your house.
Traffic for schools in SD43 is a problem at the Elementary school level, too - not just the middle school level.
The parking issues would be mitigated if they would just use the space to build a massive visitor parking lot. Most of the schools in SD43 have next to nothing, and this impacts the residents in the area.
The traffic issues could be greatly reduced by staggering classtime (I believe Centennial High School did this) and making it different than the Heritage Mtn. High School.
Correct me if I am wrong, but won’t Anmore kids be able to go to this school, too? If so, then shouldn’t Anmore residents help pay for the taxes needed to support the school? If not, then certainly Port Moody should agree to bear the entire cost.
How is the police service an issue? If the RCMP would be responsible for that school, than the issue is with THEM - not with the City of Port Moody.
Hummingbird certainly doesn’t seem to be an adequate road to have school traffic on. But, isn’t this up to the traffic experts to decide and justify?
Just because everyone is all gung-ho to build a school doesn’t mean they don’t want to do it right. Just like residents want to be able to get in and out of their houses without difficulty, I don’t want to be a parent sitting in a mile-long line-up just to get access to the school. We all have similar concerns and I have faith that most will be addressed. If residents can come up with more, then that’s a good thing. These issues aren’t deal-breakers and shouldn’t inhibit or shut-down the Middle School Project.
February 18th, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
I don’t think it’s just the middle schools that have an issue with the traffic - every elementary school also does in the area - just a consequence of the times we live in where no-one feels it’s safe to let their children walk to school. Maybe staggered start and finish times are a possible answer?
February 19th, 2009 @ 10:09 am
Schools benefit the community as a whole and are an integral part of raising healthy, contributing members of society.
Reading through the writer’s comments, all I can see are speculations founded on personal experience and opinion, with little or no basis on fact. The questions are leading and, at best, are misinformed.
The last time I checked my property tax notice, there was a levy for schools. This same levy appears on the tax notice of all residents in Metro Vancouver. We all share the cost burden for schools whether we use them or not.
As for the issues of policing and fire service, Pam is correct in saying that is an issue for the police. To correct one of the writer’s misstatements, however, Port Moody police WILL respond in Anmore if there is an urgent issue and the RCMP are unable to respond in a timely manner. The same is true of fire department response. Port Moody keeps statistics on the number of calls they respond to in Anmore for both services, so they are a matter of public record. Port Moody is not the primary responder for either police or fire, but they have responded when the need arises.
I believe there is a workable solution that requires input from the public, the municipalities and the school district. This is an opportunity that will benefit residents of Anmore, Belcarra and Port Moody. The issues of traffic are being addressed. Based on the writer’s comments, however, you would be given the impression that ALL of the school traffic will pass by Hummingbird. That is simply not the case for, as was pointed out, we will use only 20% of the services. I’m not certain where that figure comes from, but assuming it to be correct, I take that to mean only 20% of the students will come from the Anmore area. There is access off David Avenue as well and perhaps the solution is to allow access only from there. That is, I believe, a short sighted solution which will lead to further problems, but one that should appeal to the NIMBY mentality of the article writer.
I completely agree with Pam that these issues aren’t deal breakers that should result in the project being shut down. The issue needs to be approached with an open mind for resoultion, keeping in mind the net benefit to the community as a whole and not catering to the complaints of a very few.
February 19th, 2009 @ 10:27 am
I have had most of the questions you raised answered to my satisfaction by attending both middle school meetings and the APC meeting. All of which were public meetings.
One point that does stick out that needs correcting immediately (although there are many) is the 20% comment. Where are you getting this information from?
School District data, which has also been compared to our 2006 census (Realize our population has grown since then) shows that 175 children between the ages of 10-13 live in Anmore. Another 30 live in Belcarra. This is not taking into account a growth of approximately 10% over the last 3 years.
The Middle school will hold 500 children at capacity. So more than 200 will come from Anmore and Belcarra even though our population is only under 2000 in the Village and 600 in Belcarra. That is 40%. Because we are semi-rural a large percentage of these children will be bussed.
THE FACT IS.. We have a larger than average percentage of youth in our community. The BC average is 16%. 25% of Anmore’s population is under the age of 18.
We need to plan for our population and the future of the youngest in our community.
We should all be working together to solve issues related to a new school as I clearly think the benefits of this type of school will far outweigh the negatives. I agree with those commenting. These issues are not deal breakers.
February 19th, 2009 @ 3:26 pm
What is it with you people, what are you not getting..I do not want our street used to access the Heritage Mountain Middle School. I don’t care what facts you bring up about population,age groups or benefits to the community. Will the traffic be passing by your homes…will you be smelling the fumes…will you be worrying your children or pets get run over by frantic parents who are running late. Why should our street be violated. We are trying to get a point across, use another access.
February 19th, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
Wow, Mary - you really have an intense disregard for the wishes of the majority, you do realize that we live in a democracy? All schools located in residential areas have residential access. Many of these access streets were not in existence prior to the establishment of the schools they service. Regardless, the relevant point is that this plan was in existence before you purchased your home, I am very sorry that you were not aware.
That being said, I am sure that the school planners would be happy to entertain any alternative suggestions that don’t amount to thinnly vieled attempts to shift the impact into someone else’s backyard.
February 19th, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
Mary,
I am very supportive of the Village and school district working with residents to minimize traffic issues and finding alternatives to traffic problems. I don’t see this site being about that. This site is an anti middle school site. If it was only discussing traffic issues and looking for support and solutions, that would be one thing.
But the signs along east road and this entire site is focused on being anti school. I think you need to re-examine your message if you are looking for support from your surrounding neighbours.
I will state again, that I support your neighbourhood in finding solutions to traffic with the development of the middle school. I DO NOT support this site and the obvious agenda to protest the building of the middle school.
February 19th, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
Mary,
I agree with Tracy - what we are not getting is the message of this site which pretends on occasion to be about access, but is truly anti-middle school. The tangled web of grievances hardly amounts to a properly constructed argument and in its present form will not find much support.
I said elsewhere on this blog that I believe there is a way to build this school and also address the concerns of the dissenting minority regarding access.
February 19th, 2009 @ 6:01 pm
One further comment, I spoke with one of your neighbours today and she reminded me that my four children’s safety will in fact be impacted. Based on the proximity of my home on East Road to the new middle school, my children will certainly be ineligible to receive bus service and will therefore be on foot much of the time which puts them at risk from those “frantic drivers” you speak of. Is this, however, not true of all children who access school on foot? Surely this is no reason to abandon an otherwise wildly beneficial project.
February 27th, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
Tammy, I agree with you that building a school is extremely beneficial. But I, like the owner of this blog, want it to be done properly. It seems as though this isn’t being done so we have to question and bring up issues. If our elected officials don’t have the good sense to explore all avenues available and to ensure to us that this is the best option, than this is what we have to do. Question them until they answer. I notice many many questions that have been brought up on here have not been answered yet. I wonder why everyone seems to just aggree with what the Village and SD are doing without any facts or answers. It doesn’t make any sense. The questions about bussing and traffic and safety for walking children, and the wideness of streets, and air polution isn’t just for personal gain. It’s for my kids, and the owner of the blog’s kids, and for your kids as well. We need to ensure that this is done right. Right could very well mean a different location, and if that’s the case than so be it. But it has become apparent that there are no answers for many of the problems, and this makes me nervous about this project considering the school has been looking at this land for so long. The village and the district have apparently been planning on this, yet they have very little information. It is very unsettling.
May 21st, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
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