Dear Editor,
I’m amazed at the pure stupidity displayed by our mayor and council by placing an industrial area at 216th Street south of the freeway where the new interchange will be.
An industrial area. Really?
This proposal will do nothing more than produce an ugly eyesore for residents to the west of 216th, and create traffic issues, including truck traffic similar to what’s now on 96th Avenue, west of 200th Street, dust, congestion, and exhaust. The planners are surely not human, or they would be looking at the effect this and a four-lane interchange will have on Willoughby and Walnut Grove.
In case people are jumping for joy over a new interchange, think again. Once you add industrial or commercial, and give them a four-lane overpass, you add way more truck traffic slowing things down and travelling on local roads when the freeway is at a standstill.
What the planners have done is create a horrid mess in Willoughby with no relief in sight for many years, and now an industrial area.
If they had any brains, they would create their horrid monster of a plan closer to 232nd Street where trucks already have two options, Highway 10 and the freeway.
Let your council know that safety and quality of life where we live are foremost, and don’t go hand in hand with trucks and industrial areas.
There’s zero reasons why we need more traffic in Walnut Grove, cutting through from Port Kells to 216th Street, nor do we have any need to become a thru-way to the freeway or bridges.
We need peace and quiet and safe streets.
ML McRae, Langley