A City of Coquitlam's Insider Notes re: Eagle Ridge

Paul Ballantyne, a Coquitlam resident, has been doing a lot of leg work and logging lots of phone time in trying to figure out a way to keep Eagle Ridge open for all users. He managed to speak with a sympathetic and very knowledgeable person at the City of Coquitlam and presents these notes based on that conversation:

(Note: Paul has asked me to keep his source anonymous so we will refer to the person as "K")

Apparently the request to shut-down Eagle Mountain was brought up without warning during a city council meeting on November 19. The idea of turning the area into a city park was suggested by the mayor. K said that the mayor made the park comment without asking city council, or talking with any city committees. I guess the mayor thinks that he knows best and doesn't need to go through council. Needless to say, council wasn't impressed, but they are use to the Mayor shooting his mouth off.

1. We MUST form a 4x4 club in the City of Coquitlam if one does not exist, (I don't know of any). K says that the city won't want to waste their time dealing with the desires of non-residents. I half-heartedly agree with this..... would Surrey considered a want from me, a Coquitlam resident, I doubt it? The umbrella organization of the 4WDABC is not sufficient, we need to get all the Coquitlam four-wheeling residents together to form a club. It does not have to be a society.
2. A battle plan must be formed. We need a desired solution, and backups. The solution should try to keep all parties involved happy. Suggesting idea such a using the Hydro lines for access is good, but we need to back that up with permission for Hydro themselves. Don't expect the City of Coquitlam to do the work for us, we must do it all. For example, it we want a Walker Valley type entrance, we would have to raise the money to do it, not expect the city to fund it.
3. Once a battle plan has been agreed upon, we need to approach the city with it. We would start this off by making a presentation to the Coquitlam Parks Committee. This committee is responsible for reporting their recommendation to the council directly. If they like what we suggest, they will pass that recommendation to council for review and a decision.
   If we are unhappy with that outcome, we can request to be a delegation in front of council and plead our case their. No matter which way we go, it must be approached as a group FROM the City of Coquitlam.

I believe that the 4WDABC should look in this direction if they wish to be successful. Even myself as an individual and a resident has no pull. We need a Coquitlam club. I have never joined a 4x4 club before, but would be more than willing to do so if the outcome would look positive. Personally, I think the number 1 issue that needs resolved is if we have permission to be on crown land. Do we? Perhaps our lawyer friend, (sorry, don't know his name), could find this out as it is very important to our fight. If we are not allowed on crown land, our fight just ended.

Hope this helps!

Paul Ballantyne
Coquitlam, BC