Take green spaces out of the running for new fire hall site

Dear Mayor Diane Therrien and council: I am writing to voice my opposition to the planning suggestion that Inverlea and Sunset parks be considered as sites for a north-end fire hall location.

The proposal of a fire hall at Inverlea Park is wrong and has no common sense to it.

To start, there is the 1938 bylaw, which prohibits purpose other than park purposes. Yes, subsequent council can change the bylaw, but I would suggest that it should be a last resort move. This is not a dire situation.

Second is the issue of footprint. A fire hall needs a fair amount of square footage, for the hall and for vehicular movement. Inverlea, in particular does not fit that bill. This also ties into location. A hall closer to new housing developments would be more appropriate, perhaps up around Portage Place.

As well, the residents of Inverlea and Dennistoun streets will be aggravatingly impacted by a firehall. I cannot imagine wanting to move there knowing fire trucks will be coming and going at all hours.

The egress off and on the park site will be difficult to say the least. Given the amount of traffic that uses Parkhill Road, I suspect a traffic control system will be required like the Sherbrooke Street firehall has.

Having used the parks frequently I can attest to the usage I have seen. They get a lot of use during the nice weather, and with viruses being the new “norm,” being able to walk to a park is an advantage to any neighbourhood.

Finally, consider the duplicity of the report authors of using just the street names for the park sites. This leaves the perception that they were trying to hide the bad odour of proposing green space instead of unused parcels of land.

To summarize, find land that is relatively remote, unused and develop that area for a firehall for the north end, or if need be use the Northcrest Arena site. The plan is to replace the arena due to its age, so might as well use it for a higher purpose.

Peter Sudbury, Peterborough