Dear Editor:
Re: North Van council votes to permanently close section of Grand Boulevard West
With respect to the City of North Vancouver’s announcement of plans to close a section of Grand Boulevard West for additional park space, there has been no community consultation. At a recent town hall hosted by the city, park space has been requested elsewhere, where density has already been increased.
The Green Necklace already provides safe and beautiful connection of a lot of park areas back to different sections of Lonsdale Avenue.
Most importantly, in dealing with the almost daily considerable backups from the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing into this area – often all the way to Lonsdale along Keith 13th, 15th, 17th and 19th – how is shutting off a major bypass to Lions Gate Hospital and our central police and fire responders at all acceptable? I can assure you I hear the sirens daily, see the backups daily and wonder about the challenges our first responders face. Do we as residents really want response times either to or from increased?
Grand Boulevard and Ray Perrault Parks are gems but other areas of the CNV need more park space first and we do not need to hamper our first responders more. This plan needs significant reconsideration and public engagement.
Andrea Herz
North Vancouver
