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NewWestRecord.ca
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
THURSDAY JUNE 15 2017
H O M E T O W N
N E W S P A P E R
THE CHANGING CITY
Heritage under city’s wing now A controversial measure to protect heritage homes in Queen’s Park draws unanimous support from NewWestminster council By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
New Westminster is set to be home to the largest heritage conservation area in Western Canada. After listening to more than 70 delegations at a public hearing Tuesday night, city council voted unanimously in favour of an amendment to the official community plan that paves the way for the creation of a heritage conservation area in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood. At the public hearing, 47 residents supported the HCA, while 26 were opposed. “There is definitely something really unique and special about the large number of heritage homes in Queen’s Park,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “It is not any one individual home that makes that neighbourhood what it is. It is the collection of homes that have been able to last as long as they have and to receive the love and attention from the neighbourhood.” Continued on page 8
PRESERVING HERITAGE: Mayor Jonathan Cote believes a heritage conservation area is the right tool for retaining the heritage character in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood. Following a lengthy public hearing on Tuesday night, council unanimously supported the creation of a heritage conservation area in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood. PHOTO FILE PHOTO
AFTER TODDLER’S DEATH
Parent launches petition to get ditches filled By Cayley Dobie
cdobie@newwestrecord.ca
After a two-year-old girl drowned in a ditch last week, a Queensborough mother is calling on the City of New Westminster to fill all ditches in the neighbour-
hood immediately. Josephreen Luk wants to see 500 people sign her petition before she presents it to city council. (At press time, it had 220 signatures.) “These ditches should have been filled a long time ago,” she
told the Record. Luk has lived in Queensborough for three years. She has two small children and is always on alert whenever the kids are outside, she said. “They haven’t fallen in, but I’m watchful every day,” she said, add-
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ing her neighbour’s toddler fell in and had to be rescued. Luk wants the city to fill the ditches like they’ve done on Ewen Avenue. She said the current situation has gone on long enough. “I think this happens more often than people realize; it’s just not
everyone gets reported, and unfortunately, the last one ended up in a really tragic event,” she said, “and her life was priceless.” Two-year-old Biftu Taju died on June 7 after falling into a ditch Continued on page 5
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