Maureen Robertson lives in Pitt Meadows, BC. Over the past 12 years, she has attended nearly every City Council meeting in Pitt Meadows, taken myriad courses, attended dozens of meetings on housing development-related issues, and acquainted herself with the intricacies of politics and housing/industrial land development. She believes that including residents early in discussions about proposed neighbourhood developments will ultimately result in better affordable housing solutions throughout the region.
I have always lived in the Metro Vancouver region. I grew up in Richmond, BC and played in the fields of Terra Nova as they were being developed. I lived in Port Moody for 24 years with my husband and four daughters and saw Eagle Ridge be developed. I watched three infill development projects in my neighbourhood in Port Moody, BC between 2004 and 2012. I have participated in the public engagement processes for development in Pitt Meadows. I have observed, and often wonder, about how development is happening in Maple Ridge.
Projects were sometimes chaotic and frustrating. I attended Development Information Meetings. I made phone calls to City Hall, as workers’ vehicles often impeded traffic and sight lines on neighbourhood streets and nearby arterial roads. Some complaints were addressed—minimally—others were ignored.
My new neighbourhood
When we became empty-nesters, we moved to Pitt Meadows, BC near the West Coast Express commuter train. Just as we were closing the purchase of our new home, we learned that the three large lots opposite our new home had been listed . . .
My new friend
Three days after we moved in, in September 2012, I attended my first City Council meeting, hoping to learn why this was happening to our neighbourhood. I met a long-time City resident and veteran campaigner. He helped me understand City policies and procedures and be strategic in my planning, and he told me how to determine the most important moments in the campaign.
He told me, when the initial plans were defeated, to look for the next Council meeting when revised plans for the proposed development would be on the Agenda. That was the meeting where I needed to bring as many neighbours as possible to show Council how distressed residents were.
Their plan: 63 three-storey row homes with tandem parking.
The outcome: 40 two-storey units with two-car garages. A 30% win.
Everyone needs a veteran campaigner. Consider this website yours.
My Development Information Meeting
The developer gave us two weeks’ notice of an information meeting, claiming they had wonderful plans for the neighbourhood. Thus began my 12-year effort to understand why my city—and the region—still inform affected residents so late in the process.
I went to City Hall to look at the plans. The architectural drawings were dated six months before the scheduled Development Information Meeting (DIM), suggesting that the City and the developers had been in discussions for at least six months. And that made me mad!
My first DIM was in November, and the plans were on display for us to see. The project architect made a few comments, then offered to answer any questions. There were over 50 neighbours present who believed the proposal directly affected them. Both developers were in the audience, as well as a realtor. The City Planner, who was in charge of the project, was also there to answer any questions. The questions and comments from the residents showed they were vocally opposed to the development.
After the meeting I stayed and talked to some of these neighbours. When one asked if anybody knew what to do next, I told them what I had learned from attending City Council meetings in the previous three months. And thus began my leadership of the campaign.
Victory, followed by agony
For the most important meeting, I put up huge coroplast signs (using some rebar to hold them steady) in the neighbourhood, and neighbours filled the meeting room. The developer was there to pitch his newest version of the project. With so many potential voters in the room, no City Councillor would put a motion forward, so the developer had to go back to the drawing board. The revised plans were eventually passed, and the finished units are a much better fit with the neighbourhood.
So, what? Construction was still a nightmare . . .
Dumb, and dumber . . .
I spent hours writing newsletters when I should have been talking to neighbours or forging relationships with all City Councillors and City staff. Our site cleanup was ineffective. I didn’t take any photos of the mess. I let workers get away with negligent parking. I let the Bylaws department be ineffective.
I allowed the poorly established ‘Loading Zone’ be used by workers and the Project Manager, so our street continued to be crowded with delivery trucks. I watched as the Bylaws department didn’t enforce poorly parked vehicles, the ‘Loading Zone’ and site cleanup.
I should have responded with ‘small moments of action’ and had a moment of revenge! I should have established better ways to discuss the issues and possible solutions. I didn’t know how to use the media.
There were no traffic controllers when the foundations were being dug, and trucks with trailers filled our street for a week. There were no designated traffic controllers during months of construction. No ‘Loading Zone’ was established until months into construction, and the Project Manager used it as his personal parking spot.
What kind of process is this?
My journey began due to disbelief at the notification process—two weeks’ notice for residents, when actual planning had been going on for months. And this is still a typical process at City Hall.
You can read about my neighbourhood’s story in this report by the SFU Urban Studies Program: “Residential Building Approval Processes in Metro Vancouver: Year 1, Focus on Townhouses,” by the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, the Urban Development Institute, Metro Vancouver, Urban Analytics, municipalities, and others. Case Study 1: Pitt Meadows Neighbourhood Resistance to Townhouses, Best Practice: Better Public Engagement. (pg. 34).
The good
I met a long-time resident who had been attending City Council meetings for many years and was a veteran of campaigns by residents to remedy their complaints over City issues. He was able to quickly bring me up to speed on the way the City Council and City staff function. And he was able to tell me which meeting, during my campaign, would be the most important.
I met a City Councillor (and long-term resident) who would meet with me and suggest potential next steps. He once commented that I was running a respectful and political campaign.
Neighbourhood resistance delayed the project for 5 months and the design was changed from 63 three-storey rowhomes with tandem parking to 40 two-storey row homes with double garages. The finished project is a much better fit with the neighbourhood, and the surrounding streets can easily accommodate their overflow parking.
The City now has a better ‘Good Neighbour Policy.’ I made a presentation to Council, with the help of two City Councillors and saw a new policy created that helps address resident’s concerns.
The bad
Neighbours were happy to attend the meetings I informed them about, but wouldn’t speak. So, I became the voice of the campaign.
Workers could park throughout the surrounding streets and needed only to walk a few blocks. And, the parking was free! Yet, they would rudely and illegally park as close to the site as possible, often obstructing driveways and sightlines.
A ‘Loading Zone’ wasn’t established for months, the sign often went missing, and the Project Manager used it as his own parking spot.
Signs for residents’ yards indicating ‘Resident Parking’ weren’t provided for months, they often disappeared, and replacement signs could take weeks to arrive.
The project overshadows some of the surrounding housing.
New neighbours often block my driveway, on both sides, until they receive one of my small, laminated signs on their windshield.
I now have eight units, with new neighbours, whose yards face the front of my house.
We were woken at 4:13 a.m. one morning when construction machinery arrived, and kept awake by the noise of chains being removed and equipment being set up on-site.
The ugly
They cut down many beautiful trees but left the ugliest one, whose roots are overwhelming the small yards of two units.
The three lots needed to be dug down about 4′ for their foundation. Neither the City nor the developer gave any warning. For a week, our street was overrun by trucks with trailers removing the dirt. There were no traffic controllers during that week. The dust was intense and clean-up methods were a joke.
One worker swore at me as he walked to work one morning.
At the end of construction, some parts of the sidewalks for the new development were painted yellow. I had been asking for yellow curbs throughout the construction phase, but never got them.
The embarrassing
I was so angry about what I had endured. The Open Houses were the last straw. A prospective buyer parked their car partially in our driveway. So, I parked our car very close behind that car, essentially blocking them in. I still feel embarrassed because one of the passengers was an old lady, who was probably here to see the housing unit her grandchildren were buying!
TRUST ME! (In big, bold letters . . . at the top of a very big sign.) I was making signs for a meeting that would hopefully send the proposal back to the drawing board. Whenever I think about this sign and these words, I cringe.
Once, I chose to ask a question during Question Period . . . without notes. Only once. The Mayor ending up helping me get my thoughts together and then answered my question!