City needs to rethink its development strategy
By Letter to the Editor on May 7, 2020.
In recent weeks, as businesses have shifted from retail locations to delivery services, I have had the immense pleasure of driving throughout the city and exploring all the different neighbourhoods of Lethbridge. What an incredibly diverse and interesting city, but why is it so spread out?
Developments to the west and north are massive maze-like suburban spreads that pretty much force residents to have vehicles for transport. Shopping centres for groceries, gas, pharmacies, restaurants and extraneous lodgings are shoved into tight, auto-centric developments with commercial rents so high only chain stores/corporations can afford them.
What happened to making Lethbridge sustainable? This 1960s-’80s development pattern is already 40 years out of date. Please stop building like this. We don’t need to spread further and further out. The infrastructure is too expensive in these developments to maintain, and services like transit and walkability is non-existent.
The City needs to re-assess what it allows for development opportunity in our outskirts.
Kelti Baird
Lethbridge
9-8
observant entry. with regard to land deals involving the city: AUDIT! have i said as much several times already? haha! yes i have.
meanwhile, in the 20 odd years i have lived here, the city has gotten uglier and uglier. urban sprawl and residential decay – seems the city cannot afford to look after infrastructure, despite some of the highest municipal taxes in the west. worse still, we have been degraded by the massive loss of green space and habitat for creatures not human. disgusting, and sorrowful.
Go here: https://www.lethbridge.ca/Things-To-Do/Parks/Pages/Parks.aspx. Just browsing the City of Lethbridge web site brings to heel biff’s comments about a massive loss of green space. Here is a list:
North Side Parks – 46
South Side Parks – 47
West Side Parks – 64
Total 157 designated park areas.