Letter to the Editor

Slaterville is a very unique, humble, somewhat isolated and especially historic tiny community on the west side of our railroad tracks.

If you haven’t been there, please go take a look. It’s not a wealthy neighbourhood by any means but it has character and a cohesive sense of community. It is a warren of little streets and houses often tightly meshed together. It reflects the origins of some of the hardest working and lowest paid citizens of Cranbrook in the early days of Cranbrook. It’s unique. It should be a local heritage site!

There is absolutely no need to develop Slaterville by adding a 39-suite apartment building (at the corner of Hurry Avenue and 6th St. NW – pictured above). But city council now permits it. Despite concerns about location, the old (if not ancient) infrastructure of sewer, water, very poor accessibility to services and so forth, the city has deemed it a good location for ‘special’ housing: housing that will provide supervision for tenants. Why is that?

Remember the hue and cry from residents o much larger neighbourhoods of different socio-economic strata who railed against this this type of housing going into their own neighbourhoods? But somehow Slaterville is suitable. Why? Why develop Slaterville at all? Why cram this building into one of the smallest, oldest and sometimes forgotten little Cranbrook neighbourhoods?

There is absolutely no doubt that Cranbrook needs more affordable and even specialized or social housing. None. The on-going issue is always where is should be. Nobody seems to want it.

But shouldn’t the residents of this new apartment complex be part of the larger community of Cranbrook, becoming part of our fabric and having easier access to services than would be available by locating them in isolated Slaterville: in the city’s industrial zone? Yes.

Where then? Isn’t there land available for housing in that huge vacant lot at Victoria and 6th Ave., N.? Along the highway behind the Byng Hotel? What about the vacant lot adjacent the Quad Ball Field on Willowbrook Drive where people sometimes park? Maybe move that very well-loved, necessary dog park over to the west side of the railroad tracks instead and put housing on the old Muriel Baxter school site. But oh, I can just hear the uproar these statements will cause now! Perhaps you know of some available land, too?

Slaterville is a heritage site here in Cranbrook. Zone it for that. Give it boundaries. Improve the infrastructure there now. Otherwise, leave it alone.

Melodie Hull,

Cranbrook

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