Widening of a Texada Island roadway has Powell River Regional District directors shouldering criticism, but they claim the initiative belongs to another level of government.
During the regional district’s rural services July committee meeting, three delegations urged the regional board to concentrate on island transportation initiatives other than the road widening.
Tom Read, the first to speak regarding the topic, said he is concerned about the regional district’s transportation policy on Texada Island. He said the proposed Gillies Bay to Shelter Point road widening, also known as the “bike-pedestrian path,” is the regional transportation plan’s only initiative on Texada Island for the next 26 years.
“Yet the regional district has never held a public meeting on Texada Island to provide us with details on this project or to consider other potential transportation options,” Read said. “I would like to remind the board and staff that an opinion survey is not a substitute for consultation.”
Read said Texada Island Chamber of Commerce sponsored a series of well-attended public meetings after the regional district’s meetings to review the transportation plan. Read previously stated to the regional district that the island meeting was not well advertised and only he attended. The subsequent Texada Island chamber consultations revealed priorities such as an on-island transit service, road safety improvements and off-road multi-use trails, rather than the road widening project.
Read said the regional district still has important transportation planning to do on the island before plunging into big-budget projects.
“Please do not allow construction to begin on a bike-pedestrian path just yet,” he said. “Instead, I ask you to hold at least one well-publicized public meeting on Texada Island to review the details of the project and allow the people of Texada Island to review the details and deliberate on this project and its relationship to other potential transportation options for our island.”
Colin Palmer, regional district chair, said he wanted to clarify some points. He said that Texada Island is part of the regional district’s trails strategy. The strategy has been deliberately held up to achieve trail access across private land on Texada.
“Texada is front and centre and holding up the whole trails issue because we are trying to get some trails on Texada,” Palmer said.
The island bus is a separate issue and involves BC Transit, according to Palmer.
Linda Bruhn also spoke on the matter. She said she was concerned about the capacity of the biking and walking path project to accommodate intended uses.
Bruhn said she remembers Dave Murphy, the regional board’s Texada Island director, saying the path would be one-metre wide. She said she did some research using data from the Transportation Association of Canada that indicated a number of potential uses that require close to or more than a metre. This would eliminate any prospect of two-way use, according to Bruhn.
“To call it a multi-use path, a pedestrian pathway, or a bicycle path, it’s not happening at one metre,” she said. “Why are we wasting money on building a path that can’t be used? Why not wait, do some public consultation, and figure out what people actually want a path to do. If it’s going to be a one-way pedestrian path, you could do that in one metre, almost. If you want it to be a two-way pedestrian path only, 1.8 metres are required.”
Dale Reinhart, the third Texada resident to speak, said he has two concerns. He lives on Gillies Bay Road and he said the prospective path would be along his fence line, eliminating road parking. While he has a garage adjoining the road for his own vehicle, he does not have a driveway, so visitors must park on the road.
“The problem I have is that nobody has consulted us,” he said. “The lack of information is so frustrating.”
Reinhart said he understands this is department of transportation and infrastructure land and it can do with it as it wishes, but it is poor business. He said there are a dozen or two properties that face the same situation.
Palmer asked Reinhart if he had spoken to the ministry. Reinhart said he had spoken with Clint Monson. Reinhart said he was told the road widening is a “done deal.”
Palmer gave the example of Padgett Road. He said those in charge of the project talked to every affected householder before they were preparing to widen the road for a bicycle path.
Palmer suggested Reinhart talk to Tyler Lambert from Capilano Highway Services. On Padgett Road, accommodations were made, Palmer said.