Many concerns about the evacuation route
Dear Editor: Turning from Solly Road onto Latimer Avenue this morning, I found my neighbour speaking with two very nice gentlemen. They were surveyors measuring out a left turn bay and a sidewalk.
I can only hope the road measurements are being done to an appropriate standard for the proposed land use should you decide to proceed.
Lark’s current drawings show one access off Latimer Avenue and a second off Gillespie Road. Gillespie, for anyone that is not familiar, is not for the faint of heart and both access points are very close to each other. Understandably the plans will be reviewed for fire safety and I hope this year’s wildfire evacuations will be studied to inform the final report.
I have the privilege of providing clerical support for the wildfire response and am so very impressed with how our emergency personnel and staff evacuated people in difficult circumstances.
For instance, to evacuate a long-term care facility you need to consider people who can ride on a bus, need a wheelchair or stretcher and those living with dementia. In addition to long term care, plans for the Bristow Valley include assisted living units that would have a good number of residents who drive.
The Bristow Valley is not a location that would make the decision to stop driving an easy one and baby boomers have lived their whole lives with automobiles. Think too about how many vehicles we see parked around Angus Place. Let’s not kid ourselves. There would be a lot of vehicles in the valley.
Let’s imagine the Bristow Valley’s 400-plus units need to be evacuated quickly. You might need to bring in a combination of large buses, HandiDarts, ambulances and fire trucks. Add to this the residents who drive and will try to leave the valley as quickly as possible.
As currently planned, with one surface level exit up to Latimer Avenue and the only other that winds up and around inside a multilevel structure to exit on Gillespie, there would be no room for driver error, health issue or mechanical failure. I don’t want to imagine a situation in which Latimer Avenue was blocked.
Some now feel it’s okay to call us bullies and NIMBYs for opposing this development in this location, but I have not seen or heard anything that will convince me that the Bristow Valley is a good location for seniors or that the proposed road access is sufficient for any type of high density population.
Carolyn Courtemanche Summerland