Sechelt council has approved a three-year renewal of the district’s agreement with the Coasters Car Club for the use of Hackett Park and Cowrie Street for its annual Sleepy Hollow Rod Run and Show and Shine, which takes place the weekend after the B.C. Day holiday.
But the March 20 decision was not unanimous. Coun. Matt McLean voted against renewing the agreement without adding provisions around improving traffic flow through the downtown area.
“Car show day is one of the best days of the year, but it’s one of the worst traffic days of the year in Sechelt,” McLean said. “The traffic impact on our whole community is quite severe and I would really like to see us think critically about how we can reduce this traffic impact on a whole community without impacting the event.”
McLean suggested one option could be to keep the intersection at Cowrie and Trail Avenue open to allow traffic to move more easily through the downtown on Show and Shine Day.
Coun. Brenda Rowe said that could cause more problems than it solves. “No matter how many flaggers you have, there are 2,000 people down there during the day. Even having one of those intersections open, to me, sounds like sirens in my nurse’s head.”
Coun. Janice Kuester also argued for leaving the agreement as is.
“It’s not even a full day. It’s like five or six hours. It brings our community together, it brings people to the downtown, and if people can’t cope for five or six hours it’s too bad. It’s just such a great event.”
As part of the agreement, the Coasters are required to submit a traffic management plan that gets signed off by Sechelt staff, RCMP and other emergency services such as the fire department, and the Ministry of Transportation.
With the council vote, the agreement will be renewed through the 2021 event.
