WERA General Meeting of March 27, 2018

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Meeting commenced: 19:11.

                                Chair: Elmer Rudolph; Recorder: Gavin McLeod

                                Number of attendees: 6

Approval of minutes of previous meetings: Motion to approve minutes of January 23, 2018, moved by Gavin McLeod seconded by Mary Wilson, approved.

Additional Agenda Items: Report on Community Policing Committee by Gavin McLeod. Lorraine Meltzer reporting on Burnaby’s construction of an arena and its effect on traffic flow, congestion and pedestrian safety.

Report from Residents’ Association Meeting of Wednesday, February 21, 2018 by Elmer Rudolph. One item discussed was put forward by the president of the Brow of the Hill RA and that was to organize a city-wide RA block party on the same day so people could go from block party to block party and learn about each RA,  the president has not shown up at the two subsequent meetings so the item has been dropped for now.

The City page notification of RA meetings lacks any listing of agenda items which it used to do, it was requested that the City Page include at least a few agenda items.

Normally the city provides a staff person as a liaison to the RA meetings, but some RAs have been unable to get a liaison person to attend. The purpose of the liaison person is to answer basic questions and to take notes back to City Hall where they are brought up at a staff meeting.

Glenbrooke North RA were concerned about the pedestrian crossing light at Colborne and eighth Ave taking too long to change to green causing some people to miss bus connections. Councillor Bill Harper said that he would bring it up with Council.

Queensborough announced that they have had better turnout after beginning to post minutes and other items to their Facebook page.

Moody Park is having issues with booking a room at Century House, rooms are reserved for Century House Groups even if the room is not being used. Bill Harper will look into it. There has been backlash about development on Sixth Street between Princess and Seventh Avenue. Residents on Princess Street were concerned about trucks and machinery blocking access to underground parking. They are concerned that this problem will persist during the construction.

Neighbourhood Traffic Advisory Committee Report by Frank Norman. Was signed in as new delegate and received oath of office. The city went through their plans for 2018 and wanted to determine the delegates level of engagement, for each item of the plan. Items included sidewalks, greenways, great streets, bus stops and benches, walking accessibility, traffic calming traffic controls, Q to Q ferry 22^nd street station technical analysis and managed roads. Opinions were obtained on level of interest from each delegate. Frank offered the opinion that the 22^nd street station technical analysis, Connaught Heights traffic calming and added traffic calming in the west end and pedestrian access across Tenth Ave and the long-promised access across Stewardson Way to River Drive. One common complaint is through traffic causing problems for local vehicle use.

Update on Stewardson Way Overpass by Gavin McLeod. It was possible to track down a contact at Translink who was familiar with the area and the project but informed me that the project was being run by the Provincial government. I was provided with contact information for two people. I managed to contact a manager at the BC Ministry of Transportation. I was informed that the project is ongoing, funding has been explored, New Westminster staff has been consulted and elected officials will be contacted. I was asked to remain optimistic.

Report on Jane’s Walk and Walk 30 by Mary Wilson. Recently spoke about the Urban Challenges Forum Series at Douglas College, the latest topic titled “Truck Off” discussed trucks in the city. Mary brought up the issue of accessibility across major routes such as getting to Ikea from Braid station, downtown New Westminster from the 22^nd Street Station and access to Burnaby across Tenth Avenue. The New Westminster Museum will be presenting “People Gotta Move”, Mary reminded them that pedestrians are movers. Walk 30 is an initiative from Fraser Health, City of New Westminster< New Westminster School Board and this year, the city of Burnaby and Burnaby School Board. Challenge is to walk 30 minutes a day every day for 5 weeks. The reward for success is an invite to a wrap up party. Registration is through the Walkers Caucus website. Mary handed out bookmarks, the event starts on April 9^th runs to May 11 with the wrap up party on May 12^th. Mary reported on the Walkers Caucus website at http://www.walkerscaucus.ca/

Mary reported on the 2018 Jane’s Walk in New Westminster. Mary initiated Jane’s walk in New Westminster and has led numerous walks. The city of New Westminster Parks and Recreation is running Jane’s walk this year. Here is the link to Jane’s Walk in New Westminster http://janeswalk.org/canada/new-westminster/

There is very little there except for a picture of Mary Wilson dated 2013 and a listing of Renée Chadwick as City Organizer, clicking on “Learn More” takes you to the New Westminster Events Calendar which shows 2 walks There is an envelope emoji that will create an email to Renee Chadwick but no information on what is required on the email.

Update on Laneway Houses in New Westminster by Elmer Rudolph. Elmer reported that he overheard that there 5 applications underway, two or three are in Queens Park, one is by a builder that is building a house with a laneway house. It appears that adding a Laneway house to an existing house is very expensive. One person who put in an application estimates that adding a Laneway house would cost about $300,000. The city, at this time, will not approve conversion of garages to Laneway homes. The city has stated that it will not approve variances.

Request To City For Financial Assistance for WERA (Gavin McLeod): The application was received, filled in and submitted, a cheque was received and deposited at the Credit Union.

Additional Agenda Items: Community Policing Committee Report (Gavin McLeod): There has been no significant reports from the West End.

Burnaby New Arena (Lorraine Meltzer): Lorraine spoke about potential issues created by the construction of a new arena at the corner of Tenth Ave and Eighteenth Street in Burnaby (old BC Tel site). Construction vehicles will probably use Eighteenth street. There is a lot of current construction and scheduled construction in that area especially at the old Safeway site. The potential volume of traffic on Tenth and Eighteenth suggest that a traffic control light be placed at Eighteenth and Tenth. Lorraine submitted a letter to the mayor of New Westminster. According to the city of New Westminster Burnaby controls Tenth Ave. Lorraine reported on “rat running” on Dublin.

Meeting Adjourned: 20:55

Next Meeting: Tentatively scheduled for Tuesday May 22, 2018 at Unity in Action Church from 7 pm to 9 pm.