The Sechelt community has proposed several additional routes for a future West Sechelt connector, which will be discussed at a public workshop Sept. 9.
"A downtown to West Sechelt connector is an important part of Sechelt's future local road network and will have impacts for all areas of our community," acting Mayor Warren Allan said in a statement. "We want to have as much information as possible on potential routes available to help facilitate fair and comprehensive discussion of route alternatives at the workshop."
In June, responding to resident opposition, Sechelt council voted against a staff recommendation to use Neptune Road for the connector, and asked staff to bring forward other options. In July, the District of Sechelt announced that a public workshop would be organized to discuss three major route alternatives: Reeves Road to Trail Avenue; Derby Road to Neptune or Medusa Street; or Clayton Way to Barnacle or Cowrie Street.
Following input from individuals and community associations, the District has now identified eight possible connector routes, and has calculated the distance of new road construction required to build each potential connector. The options are: Reeves to Trail, totalling 1,200 m of new road construction; Tyler Road to Trail, totalling 1,500 m; Tyler to Anchor Road, totalling 1,600 m; Tyler to Neptune, totalling 1,700 m; Derby to Neptune, totalling 1,400 m; Derby to Medusa, totalling 1,200m; Cowrie to Julmar Road, totalling 700 m; or Barnacle to Julmar, totalling 700 m.
The District has also updated a list of criteria it's asking the community to use in assessing the options, so that Sechelt council can evaluate each option consistently. The criteria are: safety, impact on existing neighbourhoods, support for future development, construction costs and funding opportunities, and topography and buildability. More information about the routes and criteria is available at www.sechelt.ca.
The public workshop will be held Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. at Holy Family Parish Hall, at 5700 Nickerson Rd. The District will provide attendees with an information booklet showing route options and evaluation criteria. The meeting will start with a brief background review and a presentation of the engineering details for each route, and then attendees will break into discussion groups. Following the discussions, which will be summarized both at the meeting and later in a report to council, attendees will be able to put questions to District staff. Anyone who can't attend the meeting can leave written comments at the District office or e-mail [email protected].
