I refer to the Peak article regarding the development proposed to qathet Regional District for 177 houses, on upper Nootka Street just outside the city boundary [“qathet Regional District hears overview of Nootka Ridge project,” February 15].
Affordable housing was mentioned by qRD, of course it is. Equivalent to greenwashing.
Yes, affordable housing is good. But it is only good, or even affordable, when it is properly serviced, competently governed, in a concentrated area of housing where transit might be available, where school busing and even walking to school is possible, where picking up groceries or going to the gym doesn’t involve a long car ride.
Cities are competent at sewer and water, regional districts not so much. Often it is the homebuyers in these projects in regional districts who suffer the consequence of the failures of those systems.
The motivation for qRD to approve this project is the most common of motivations: money. Easy money from the property tax for which they needn’t do much. These little communities are mostly on their own.
My concern, as a resident of the City of Powell River, is mostly the access issue. At present all the traffic from upper Nootka funnels down upper Westview Avenue, which is a narrow subdivision road, the opposite of a collector road. If residents on that street were to park on both sides, it would be reduced to barely more than one lane.
Already the traffic pollution and safety risk from the considerable traffic should be considered intolerable. Imagine how much worse it would get with an additional 177 houses, or more if qRD gets serious about this city building thing; there is lots of open land still available up there.
I am curious how much liability the city takes on for allowing the large trucks that use that street regularly, when the street is obviously not meant for that kind of traffic, should one of those trucks lose control and go plunging into town (it is a steep road). It would be totally reasonable, and perhaps legally necessary, to limit the truck traffic to small delivery vans.
Upper Westview Avenue was not built as a collector road, should never have de facto become one, and should never be converted into one.
It would not be hard, but costly, to build a proper collector road. Extending Manson Avenue is the obvious choice. The city should not have to pay for that extension since it benefits the developments out of town.
The time for the city to establish control of the situation is now. Sure it is improbable that qRD would approve the development. Nevertheless the threat will always be there, and the city should insist that a moratorium on any further house building in new or existing developments be put in place until proper access is established.
Finally, I wonder what liability qRD is assuming by not having a second access so that if a forest fire closed the present single access, possible, and the residents were trapped with no escape.
Ronald Harder is a City of Powell River resident who lives in Westview.
