[PoscStudent]

I read this horrible letter to the editor today! Density, what was this guy smoking?

Time to look ahead, not back

I’m writing to express my support for the proposed 16-floor Tiffany condominium project.

As a city, we can no longer afford to be afraid of height and density outside of the heritage areas we have a duty to protect.

Stantec indicated in its proposal that increasing the height and density of the buildings makes greater amenities possible and more affordable for future residents. The same is true of our city as a whole.

We simply cannot afford to continue forcing our city to build and pay to maintain suburban sprawl simply because some residents refuse to accept they live in a city and insist on preventing any development for selfish reasons counter-productive to the sustainability and vibrancy of our city as a whole.
Do some residents actually believe they have a right to stop a positive development such as this one because of sight lines or shadows? Stantec even notes in its proposal that shorter buildings will cast a wider shadow that will impact surrounding properties even longer.

To me, that is a primitive way of thinking and one which our city cannot afford to follow.

Rabid anti-development activism such as this is why we are still a city of just 200,000 while other cities with a fraction of our resource wealth, such as Calgary, have grown from smaller than us to more than a million residents in the span of a few decades.

And, as Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi said when he visited St. John’s, “If you want young people to stay, build a city where young people want to live.”
As a young man in my 30s, I want a smartly planned city with a bright future — not an expanse of single-family, detached homes that spreads from here to Clarenville, where we can’t even get a single condo project approved because of shadows.

I want more walkable, well-planned neighbourhoods like Churchill Square and Pleasantville, and fewer car-dependent neighbourhoods completely devoid of any visible life like Paradise.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this proposed development. It increases density, brings in much more money for the city, makes servicing these lots in the future more affordable — it is a win/win situation. I will be horrified and deeply disappointed if this proposal isn’t approved for reasons that should be laughed out of any council chambers.

Ryan Crocker
St. John’s

http://www.thetelegram.com/Opinion/L...%2C-not-back/1