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LETTER: Some on White Rock council seem on intent on pushing growth boundaries

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The Editor,

Re: "White Rock: Should it Stay or Should it Grow?" the Now, July 24.

I recently read your article that included Mayor Wayne Baldwin's comments regarding White Rock's need for densification. There is definitely an argument to be made for each side on this subject but there is little or no argument that White Rock's uptown needs a beatification project or facelift.

The densification plan would work well in our Uptown with our present Official Community Plan as it already allows for highrises and would supply plenty of much-needed commercial space underneath.

The problem is some members of this council seem intent on continually pushing those boundaries by entertaining developer's highrise proposals outside of our existing OCP.

Baldwin goes on to state that the general plan is to keep future highrise developments north of Thrift Avenue, ensuring the waterfront and hillside don't become overshadowed by structures.

That definition is already taken care of in our present OCP by high density being limited to north/south between North Bluff Road and Thrift Avenue and east/west between Foster Street and George Avenue. So if in the future, the mayor could just respect our OCP and not entertain development proposals from his campaign contributors that are outside of our OCP it would be much appreciated.

Oh, and one more little helpful hint. Mayor Baldwin, when you state, "We don't have the luxury of having the Surrey type of development where you've got raw land and you can just plunk something into it and nobody's going to care," you may want to reset your diplomacy button, as it appears to have tripped.

Cyndie Richards, White Rock