Indo-Canadians & their love of big houses

I was somewhat bemused to read the following article....

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=d3b84f97-81ad-4098-84da-5b0e390ff5f6&k=87735

SURREY - New Indo-Canadian residents of north Surrey vowed to continue their battle for bigger homes after city council voted Monday for the second time in five weeks in favour of smaller house sizes in the area.

Kamaljit Singh Thind said he will go back to the St. Helen's Park neighbourhood to try to get more support for zoning that would favour his position.

Thind, who bought in the neighbourhood last April because of a new Khalsa School being built nearby, said he was disappointed that council had twice voted to reduce the maximum house size.And he said he is sure the issue is being motivated by racism, despite strong denials by councillors, the mayor and long-time area residents.

"We will continue our fight. I have made an opposition party over there," Thind said late Monday, surrounded by dozens of disappointed supporters.

Thind has registered a new group called the St. Helen's Park Neighbourhood Ratepayers' Association, to take on the long-established South Westminster Ratepayers' Association that lobbied for almost three years for smaller house sizes in the historic neighbourhood.

After the South Westminster group's success at council last month, many Indo-Canadians led by Thind said they felt the restrictions were racist since it was their community that wanted larger homes.

About 150 people attended a public hearing Monday night at which Councillor Judy Higginbotham tried to put through a motion to reconsider the issue.Higginbotham said she felt the other motion had gone through too quickly and without the chance for the minority to have its say. But South Westminster association president Grant Rice told The Vancouver Sun that the group had gone through a meticulous process over three years to place the 3,250-square-foot limit on house size.

Rice said he was disappointed the contentious issue was coming up just a month after the original council vote.Thind said his realtor told him nothing of the fact there was a plan to change regulations in the neighbourhood by cutting back house sizes by 300 square feet.

Paul Brar, who lives nearby, said some people have been unfairly describing Indo-Canadian homes as "monster houses."

"Is it fair to say we live in monster houses? We are not monsters," Brar said.

He said Indo-Canadian developers are responsible for cleaning up some of Surrey's worst neighbourhoods."There are many people who resent the success of our hard-working people," he said.With more and more real estate for sale in the vicinity of the new Khalsa School on Old Yale Road, the issue is likely to continue to spark controversy.