An Oct. 7 public meeting, convened to present Sechelt council's Davis Bay sea walk expansion proposal, shifted gear when 250 fuming attendees demanded, and were granted, a microphone.
As angry comments began to fly thick and fast, it became clear that attendees hadn't come to discuss the sea walk project; they wanted to talk about the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI)'s Davis Bay highway-widening plan, which Sechelt council endorsed Sept. 15 with the stipulation that the sea walk be expanded.
The MOTI project would widen Highway 101 to install a light and southbound left hand turn bay at Davis Bay Road, eliminating 15 parking spaces and causing three memorial benches and some landscaping to be re-located. The construction would also narrow the sea walk within the 150-metre construction zone - the impact council thought to minimize with the sea walk expansion proposal.
"This whole evening is structured to distract attention from the incontestable fact that this community is opposed to every aspect of this proposal - from the widening of the seawall to the closing of Westly [Road] to the elimination of the parking spaces - and to focus on, essentially, trivia," Davis Bay resident Ian McLatchie said, to loud clapping and cheers.
Just prior to McLatchie's comments, attendees heard Sechelt's manager of sustainability and special services Emanuel Machado briefly present a "first draft" of the sea walk project - a 150-metre long concrete oceanward expansion, supported by steel piers, with a safety railing - and encouraged the public to voice feedback about details such as landscaping and whether to use wood or metal for the safety railing.
"Whether there should be trees or benches or whether there should be wood supports or metal supports [for the widened sea walk] - nobody gives a damn," McLatchie continued. "It's not the issue. The issue for everybody in this room is to kill the proposal, and nobody gives a good goddamn about anything else."
Attendee after attendee expressed anger with council's Sept. 15 "flip-flop" to endorse the highway-widening plan.
"I feel betrayed by this council," Davis Bay resident Harold Enqvist said, stating that the community had been "clear as a bell" at aSept. 1 council meeting that it opposes the project.
Wilson Creek resident Sandra Friedman demanded that council revisit the question and vote the project down.
"By the time we can vote you out, the damage will have been done," she said.
Others directed their rage at MOTI, commenting that the highway-widening project doesn't address the community's priorities - notably, shoulder-widening on Selma Park Hill - and decrying the way the $2.5 million in highway funds appears to hinge on the community accepting the unpopular Davis Bay project.
"Why can't all the money go to Selma Park?" asked Davis Bay resident Bob Evermon, who was involved in a petition with 3,000 signatories opposing the project. "It sounds like blackmail to me."
Other attendees questioned the collision statistics that MOTI has used to defend the plan, and opined that no Davis Bay residents knew of any serious collisions that had happened at the Davis Bay Road intersection.
"The safety issue at the Davis Bay Road intersection is bogus," said Doug Reid, one of the originators of the petition.
Reid noted, as had other attendees, that collisions are counted against the nearest intersection - meaning that some of the collisions counted against the Davis Bay Road intersection didn't actually occur there.
Attendees also commented that the highway project would turn out no better than the still-hated lane reductions to Gibsons Way, and asked that the money be put towards a bypass.
While a few attendees voiced minority opinions - that it would be a pity to lose the $2.5 million, or that a stoplight at Davis Bay Road would help parents dropping off their children at Davis Bay Elementary School - their comments were virtually subsumed by the wave of opposition.
Throughout the meeting, municipal staff responded to questions and clarified facts. Sechelt chief administrative officer Rob Bremner clarified, for example, that a bypass is "not even on the Ministry's radar."
Bremner also noted that it has taken the District a decade of lobbying for highway improvements between Field Road to the conveyor belt outside Sechelt to achieve this $2.5 million project.
"It took 10 years to get this," he said.
Sechelt staff will compile comments and feedback received at the meeting into a report for council's Oct. 27 committee of the whole meeting.
Council update
Responding to Davis Bay speed concerns, which have been raised throughout the highway-widening debate, council voted on Wednesday, Oct. 13, to proceed with turning Davis Bay into a park, between Bay Road and Chapman Creek. The park designation would lower the speed limit along that stretch to 30 km/hr from 50 km/hr between dawn and dusk.
Also at committee of the whole, council passed motions to review the number and positions of speed signs along Davis Bay and to ask RCMP to increase their speed enforcement along that stretch. It additionally voted to remove the Davis Bay topic from its current standing position on meeting agendas, unless staff can offer any updates on the topic.
Coun. Alice Janisch then moved to rescind council's Sept. 15 motion to proceed with the highway-widening project. Several council members spoke against the motion on procedural grounds. Coun. Ann Kershaw spoke against introducing the motion, without warning, when Coun. Alice Lutes was away with an injury.
"It's pretty unfair to bring forward such an important motion when we're missing one councillor," she said.
The motion to rescind failed, with Janisch and councillors Keith Thirkell and Warren Allan voting for it, and Kershaw, Coun. Fred Taylor and Mayor Darren Inkster opposed.
