Thank you Mr. Lewis for your column that details the plight of the people who live directly along the path of the proposed SFPR. You are absolutely correct that our property values are NOT going to rise like Mr. Smyth says.

Yes Mr. Smyth – those of us directly along the route also have most of our personal net worth tied up in our homes just like the other folk you mention. So you are telling me that when the SFPR is completed, those homes that are directly on the path that had previously looked out at a River view and now look directly at a concrete sound mitigation wall and will also have the night lights of the freeway glaring in their windows are going to be of higher value? What about the ones further up the bank that the sound mitigation wall has no effect on as there is no way to mitigate sound uphill? Well then, will you come and buy those homes after the fact at a 10 to 20 percent increase over the value they are at now?

I think not. And Gateway won’t either.

What is really sad is that in reality the ones who are being expropriated are the lucky ones. It is the ones that are being left behind that will suffer. Gateway is offering no compensation what so ever to the community as a whole yet it admits that here in the Sunbury / Annieville areas we will be dealing with the highest noise impacts. That information is buried in the 3,000 page + Environmental Assessment that was just released.

The future livability of this entire community is at risk.