Safety concerns with the potential for 30 new homes in a Lake Country subdivision were front and centre as several residents spoke at a public hearing at the Lake Country council chambers on Tuesday.
The area proposed for development is at the south end of Lake Country next to the existing Northview subdivision between Glenmore and Northview Roads. Residents of the established neighborhood spoke about the potential for a serious accident with even more homes in the subdivision that currently only has one entrance and exit way.
"Something has got to be done before someone is killed," said resident Allan Stewart, one of several residents of the neighborhood that packed the Lake Country council chambers. "You can't get out of there now in the morning (with traffic)."
"We have a lot of basement suites in the neighborhood and we have a lot of vehicles and they are all going to be using one street," added Cheryl Stewart. "It's a wooded area and should that ever catch on fire, I can't see all these people getting out safely."
Access to the new subdivision was on the forefront of the concerns raised by the residents who would see their neighborhood roughly double in size should the next development plan go ahead.
Other issues raised included the costs for area homes to hook into the sewer system that will be part of the development, the maintenance of a promised park, sidewalks, speed-bumps as well as construction traffic.
Fred Marin spoke on behalf of the developer.
"We want to produce a subdivision in keeping with the existing neighborhood," said Marin, who only addressed the question of construction traffic, which could use a proposed emergency route from the subdivision onto Glenmore Road as opposed to bringing heavy machinery through the existing neighborhood.
"We will make every effort to have the construction vehicles use the Glenmore Road access rather than having heavy machinery through the subdivision," he said. "I can't promise that will continue all the way through but we realize it is a bit of a problem."
The developer was at council asking for a rezoning of the area that would allow for the development to proceed.
District staff said the rezoning was in line with what the communities Official Community Plan designated for the area and also said the current residents would benefit for the potential to hook up to the sewer system that the developer would construct.
The proposal will now go back to Lake Country council at some point when councilors will have to decide whether to approve the rezoning bylaw.