Tree removal upsets neighbours
Email
Print
Letter to Editor
Share
Updated: July 09, 2009 2:55 PM
Several residents living near the PoCo Inn and Suites say they are angry that the hotel owner is removing trees and brush that sits between their properties.
Kim Yorston, a resident in the north Port Coquitlam neighbourhood who works in the distribution department of The Tri-City News, said the trees work as a buffer between the residential and commercial properties.
"We want them to leave the end of Bridgman Avenue alone," she said.
Earlier this week Yorston said she was alarmed to see an excavator clearing brush on the property at the end of her street. After she approached the crews that were operating the machinery and phoned the city, a stop work order was imposed on the site.
Len Bergquist, who owns the hotel, said he has obtained the proper tree removal licence.
He wants several cottonwoods removed from the area because he said they are impacting his hotel's air conditioning unit.
However Bergquist must meet several requirements before the stop work order is removed.
According to city documents he must provide a letter of intent outlining his reasons for removing the trees and must survey the land to confirm the trees he is removing are on his property.
Barriers around four fir trees and one cedar that are not allowed to be removed will also be built so that crews do not damage the trees while clearing the land.
Bergquist said he does not want to remove the buffer between his hotel and the surrounding residential property.
"They want a buffer between us and them and that is fair," he said. "Whatever I do at the end of the day is going to be beautiful between us and them."
Yorston believes the tree-clearing is the first step toward the hotel's expansion, something Bergquist does not deny.
He said when the city first began discussing the Coast Meridian Overpass he began looking at ways of building higher. However he was quick to point out that any plans to increase the size of the PoCo Inn and Suites would need the approval of council.
"I took a dirty old hotel and made it nice," he said. "Now I want to make it nicer."
Tensions between the hotel and neighbouring residents began in 1997 when Bergquist cleared some land to make way for a parking lot in the back of the property.
During that process he removed several trees that belonged to the city and were on what was at that time city property.
Since then Bergquist has purchased the land from the city which according to the city's director of legislative and administrative services Kathleen Vincent means the dispute is a civil matter.
"[Bergquist] is a private property owner," she said. "He does legally and lawfully own the land and he did legally and lawfully take out a tree cutting permit."
gmckenna@tricitynews.com
v2
