Dear Editor:
Re: ‘Monster’ Home Debate Not Over, Feb. 25 front-page story
West Vancouver residents would be naive to think no other community is watching this precedent setting case.
We in Oak Bay like many communities are fighting to keep the tree-lined streets, character houses and beautiful gardens from being destroyed by overbuilt intrusive modern boxes absolutely devoid of any pleasing esthetic.
Not only are these monstrosities huge, but as the councillors rightly stated they certainly do not encourage a sense of community. In fact, they pit neighbours against one another.
We were lucky to grow up in the Cypress Park area of West Vancouver in the ’60s, surrounded by forest. Neighbours’ properties were placed to allow for privacy between them.
I return to West Vancouver often and I am greatly saddened by the amount of tree removal and ostentatious building that seems to have gripped the municipality.
It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss story of Yurtle the Turtle who would do anything to be higher than anyone else and literally stepped on the heads and bodies of the other turtles to get his way.
Monster houses are a perfect example of this type of uncaring attitude and the neighbours or (turtles) be damned!
It seems West Vancouver has turned into a materialistic society where the self-indugent can destroy the greenery, add to the landfills and ruin people’s views, all because they have the money to do so.
This is certainly not the West Vancouver I grew up in and I hope the other councillors and mayor come to their senses over this extremely important decision.
We are fighting these issues throughout B.C.’s communities and we must strengthen community involvement and bring limitations to the building bylaws if we are to preserve the reasons why we were drawn to our communities in the first place.
Neighbourhoods unite!
Rachel McDonnell
Victoria
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