Re: Density knocks at Sidney’s door (News, July 6)
I read with interest and shock of a proposal to establish a 500 unit residential development on the present Slegg Lumber site. This proposed multi-unit development is in the very middle of Sidney’s industrial area. Is there not a more suitable place to allow residential expansion?
Presumably these units would be occupied by young working people with children and growing families. It seems to me that not only would it be unpleasant to raise a family in the middle of an industrial area, but it could also be dangerous.
I’m new to this area having only moved to Sidney four months ago. The thing I find particularly distressing is the absolute lack of single family residential development on the Peninsula.
Many of my younger patients live in Langford in new affordable housing and commute because local housing is not available.
Unfortunately the councils of North Saanich and Sidney have adopted the parochial view of limiting expansion of needed single family residential development.
As a new resident of Sidney, I want to find a nice piece of property in the area to build a pleasant small home for myself and my wife. Lack of affordable housing is a major reason why new physicians refuse to relocate to the Saanich Peninsula.
With so much vacant and unused land on the Peninsula I am bewildered at how I cannot find detached house building sites. The prudent approach would be to allow controlled residential expansion of new subdivisions in pleasant locations that would attract new families.
All those young families that work in Sidney but live in Langford want affordable single family houses in nice residential areas. I am fairly certain they do not want to live in the industrial area.
Robert H. Brown
Sidney