​New Westminster is the second most dense city in Canada (www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220209/t004a-eng.htm) yet developers have convinced the city council to approve plans for an 8-tower development, each up to 53 stories high, at Columbia Square (10th Street and Columbia). The city needs to stop this from moving forward because our city amenities and infrastructure are too far behind.

Our schools are already well over capacity (newwestschools.ca/our-schools/capacity), and the situation would become worse with the addition of these eight towers.

Many of our sports and leisure activities are already basically a lottery system due to our high population (have you tried registering someone for swimming lessons? Good luck!)

Traffic is terrible through our neighbourhoods now, imagine adding 3800 homes (over 7000 people) to that area!  Everyone within the city and nearby areas will be affected.

Why is council doing this? The two biggest reasons heard in the council meeting on Monday October 28th were:
1. There is an affordable housing crisis.

And of the 3800 homes, only 138 (no, I did not forget a zero) will be designated as "affordable housing".

2. This will bring in money for the city.

Where will these families go to school? Where will these families play sports, or take swimming lessons? Where's the money from all the previous towers that were added over the last decade? Where will all the easily accessible parking go?

There is talk of adding an "urban" school to the premises, but this is not a well formed plan, nor is it even guaranteed as part of the project.

The city council needs to hear from the residents that this is a terrible idea, and the lagging amenities and traffic need to be addressed before bringing in even more density to our city.