Relocating the Sechelt Visitor Centre from downtown Sechelt to Davis Bay would be a bad move, the centre’s manager told District of Sechelt council Dec. 17.
Appearing as a delegation, Bronia Kingsbury said moving the centre would be a step backward in efforts to revitalize downtown Sechelt and “would be a costly mistake.”
The idea, with an estimated $1.4-million price tag, had been proposed in September by then chief of innovation and growth Ron Buchhorn and was included in the previous council’s draft capital budget for 2017.
Kingsbury said the visitor centre, located in the Seaside Centre at 5790 Teredo St., provides services to prospective and established residents as well as tourists, and its value “as a hub in its current central location cannot be underestimated.”
Of the 6,000 visitors who passed through the centre in July, August and September, about one-third came from Earls Cove, she said.
“That’s 2,000 visitors in those three months. We predict that the majority of those visitors will bypass the town of Sechelt if the visitor centre moves, because they will be looking for the next visitor centre, which could be Davis Bay. It’s really unlikely that those who pass by our town will retrace their steps and come back.”
Having a location that is “close to the action,” Kingsbury said, makes it “easy for out-of-towners to access the tourist-related services that are right here on our doorstep” and is an ideal location to point out key public facilities to people who are thinking of moving to Sechelt.
“Most communities would give their eye teeth to be in a location such as ours,” she said. “I think if you were to ask our local population what they thought about this proposed move, they would be very, very disappointed.”
Mayor Bruce Milne thanked Kingsbury for her presentation and said he was sorry she had to put in so much work and effort, because the proposal was “simply an idea” at this point.
“When budgets and capital budgets are more than two years away, they’re basically just parked, as an idea,” Milne said. “So it’s not something that’s under active consideration.”
In response to Kingsbury’s plea that council consult stakeholders before considering the move, Milne assured her that the new council “would, in fact, make sure we consulted with stakeholders and the community and others long before we committed that kind of money.”
He also noted that a group of citizens in Davis Bay has been “actively thinking through what their neighbourhood would want to see on that land, and a visitor information centre wasn’t high on the list.”
Under the proposal, the new centre would be built on an undeveloped District lot situated on the east side of Chapman Creek and the north side of Highway 101. It would include parking spaces for recreational vehicles, a coffee shop, gallery, washrooms and an outdoor amphitheatre.
