Dear Editor,
As a 10-year resident and senior residing in this city, I wonder where this city is headed. Recent articles and legal cases that have come to my attention lead me to believe that our City planners and council seem to have their heads in the sand. Case in point: a recent article in airdrielife that points our city to mega residential expansion but does not explain how the City will be able to afford the infrastructure required for that expansion.
Since I have been a resident, the city has grown some 50,000 souls with only two substantial industrial/commercial developments. In any economical scenario, that does not bode well for the lowly taxpayer.
If our City planners think residential taxation will suffice in the future they should return to school for some advanced economics lessons.
The second item of concern is being eroded as I write this, senior housing. I’m referring to realistic senior housing. At present this is virtually non-existent in Airdrie. Presently most seniors in Airdrie live in four-storey, stick-built apartments, which one major fire would inevitably result in numerous deaths. As we are all aware elevators are of no use in substantial fires (can you see 50 or 60 seniors trying to flee a building using their walkers in the stairwells?).
A recent legal case indicates an application by the developers in Reunion to rezone a substantial area of that development that was originally zoned for a seniors complex be redesignated as mixed residential, further shrinking the available base for a much needed multi-dimensional seniors complex. I would hope that during our next City election we seniors boot off our doorsteps these people who feel it is better to kiss the butts of developers than to honestly assess the needs of its citizens.
Gordon Calder,
Airdrie
