Dear Editor,
A town doesn’t change all at once. It shifts slowly, almost quietly, until one day you look around and realize something familiar has been reshaped.
For those of us who have lived in Maple Ridge our entire lives, the change has been both subtle and significant. What was once unmistakably a small town now sits somewhere in the middle of becoming something else.
Some of that evolution has been welcome. Communities grow. New families arrive. New ideas take root. Expecting a town to remain exactly as it was decades ago would be unrealistic.
But growth works best when it carries a sense of balance, when it builds carefully on the foundation that already exists. Lately, many long-time residents feel that balance beginning to slip.
Much of the conversation about Maple Ridge today centres on attracting new residents – people leaving Vancouver and other parts of the Lower Mainland in search of more space, quieter neighbourhoods, and a different pace of life.
It’s understandable. Maple Ridge offers something many people feel has been lost in larger cities.
But part of that appeal is precisely what makes this place different.
The charm people speak about when they move here did not appear overnight. It was shaped slowly by generations of residents who built their lives here, by neighbourhoods where people stayed for decades, by streets that remained quiet and familiar, and by a sense that the community grew organically rather than being engineered all at once.
When people choose to move from a large city into a smaller community, they are choosing a different way of living. Fewer amenities, perhaps. A slower pace. A little more space between things.
That difference is not a flaw. It is the very reason many people move here in the first place.
Yet, it increasingly feels as though many civic decisions are being made with the goal of transforming Maple Ridge into something closer to the larger cities people left behind; layering in more large-scale amenities and rapid development in an effort to keep pace with urban expectations.
In doing so, there is a growing concern that the needs and realities of long-standing residents are being pushed to the margins.
Many households have seen property taxes climb steadily in recent years, leaving people asking a simple question: what exactly are we building toward?
The vision often presented involves ambitious projects and expansion meant to signal progress. But progress, if it is to serve a community well, must also address the everyday needs already present.
Across Maple Ridge there are long-standing infrastructure questions; concerns about roads, schools, and the practical systems that support daily life. These may not be the most exciting issues politically, but they are the ones that affect residents most directly.
When those foundational concerns appear to take a back seat to large new developments, it can create the impression that growth is being pursued more for appearance than for necessity.
One example that has recently sparked significant discussion is the proposal involving the Maple Ridge Golf Course.
The concern for many residents is not the idea of improvement or new recreational opportunities.
Communities evolve, and amenities can be a positive addition when they are thoughtfully planned. The issue is whether the location and surrounding infrastructure can realistically support what is being proposed.
The roads surrounding the golf course already experience heavy traffic, particularly with the constant flow connected to the Golden Ears Bridge. Introducing a large concentration of new facilities into that corridor raises understandable questions about how that increased traffic will be managed safely.
For residents on nearby streets, the possibility that quiet residential roads could become exit routes for that traffic has been especially troubling. Streets that have long been peaceful neighbourhood spaces could suddenly become part of a larger traffic pattern designed to support the new development.
Most people understand that no town stays frozen in time. Change is inevitable. But thoughtful growth asks a deeper question: who is being asked to absorb the consequences of that change?
The Maple Ridge Golf Course itself also carries history within the community. The land was gifted to the city with the understanding that it would remain a golf course. A gesture made in good faith and rooted in a desire to preserve a piece of the city’s character for future generations.
When arrangements like that are reconsidered, it naturally raises broader questions about stewardship and trust.
None of this is written out of resistance to growth. Maple Ridge will continue to evolve, and new residents will continue to arrive. That is part of the natural life of any community.
But growth should strengthen the character of a place, not gradually replace it.
Maple Ridge has always been more than a convenient place to live outside Vancouver. It has been a community defined by the people who have built their lives here, by neighbourhoods that still carry history, and by a pace of life that feels just a little more grounded than the cities around us.
As residents, we all play a role in shaping what this city becomes.
Elections and civic decisions are not distant political processes. They determine the roads we drive on, the neighbourhoods we live in, and the character of the place we call home.
Every vote matters. Every voice carries weight.
The question facing Maple Ridge is not whether the city will grow. It will.
The real question is whether that growth will be guided with enough care to protect what made this place special in the first place, or whether we allow it to slowly become indistinguishable from everywhere else.
Stevie Shayler, Maple Ridge