Sechelt council voted down a contentious Davis Bay highway-widening plan Wednesday evening, Sept. 1, before a heated Seaside Centre crowd of nearly 200 the largest local turnout in recent history.
The plan, part of $2.5 million in safety-targeted highway improvements, would have widened Highway 101 to add a stoplight and a southbound left-hand turn bay at the Davis Bay Road intersection by eliminating 15 oceanside parking stalls plus five memorial benches and landscaping which buffer seawall users from highway traffic.
Doug Reid, a member of the Davis Bay walking club whose members spearheaded a petition protesting the plan, kicked off the meeting with a delegation to council.
Reid said more than 3,000 petition signatories felt the plan prioritized vehicle safety over pedestrian safety; that it showed a showed a "cavalier" disregard for taxpayer money by destroying taxpayer-funded improvements and landscaping; that it would compromise a significant tourism draw; and that the money should be used for shoulder-widening of a more dangerous stretch of highway along Selma Park hill.
Reid's statements were met with approving rumbles and sometimes loud clapping. Throughout the room, many female petitioners carried red, yellow, pink and white carnations as a symbol of their opposition to the plan.
"Clearly, the petitioners don't want the proposed plan they want a new plan, or nothing at all," Reid stated, noting that petitioners were calling for a public meeting where they could voice their comments first-hand.
Next, Jay Porter, project manager for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI), went over the plan background and details. Displaying a rendering of the post-improvements intersection, he noted that the "buffer" between seawall pedestrians and traffic would be 2.15 to 2.45 metres and "not the two feet that has been said."
He also detailed an earlier plan to widen the highway on the residential side likely through expropriation.
"Landside scheduling constraints due to property negotiation and utility co-ordination have made this option unachievable by the March 31, 2011 deadline," he said, referring to the deadline by which federal funds half the project budget must be used, or they will be withdrawn.
Council launched its discussions by putting questions to MOTI officials. Coun. Ann Kershaw asked if the $2.5 million could be used entirely for improvements to Selma Park, rather than using leftover money following the Davis Bay improvements, as per the plan.
"The funder funding was for the left-turn Davis Bay improvement, so the other improvements that we talked about, the lighting [at Davis Bay intersection], the additional enhanced [Selma Park] shoulder widening, that was all if we had money left over," said MOTI's acting regional director Ashok Bhatti. "So if we're not proceeding with the project in terms of you not approving it, none of that work would be completed."
The crowd rumbled with discontent, with one attendee shouting out, "That's blackmail!"
Coun. Fred Taylor asked when a bypass might be constructed. Bhatti said he wasn't prepared to discuss that, but that the cost would be "considerable."
Coun. Keith Thirkell asked if the estimated $700,000 left over following the Davis Bay construction could be used to widen the seawall.
Bhatti said MOTI could look into it, but given the type of approvals that might be required, there were no guarantees it could be pulled off in time.
Coun. Alice Lutes spoke for the plan, stating that no future bypass would reduce traffic concerns along Davis Bay.
"We're never going to lose traffic on that part of the highway, because it's so beautiful, and this is our one opportunity to make it safer," she said, before the hostile crowd cut her off with booing.
Council voted down a motion to delay voting on the project until Mayor Darren Inkster away with his family in Italy could be present as a tiebreaker. It also voted down an amendment, proposed by Taylor, to tie the endorsement of the plan to a condition that the District of Sechelt and MOTI "work towards an agreement" to widen the seawall.
Just before voting, councillors Thirkell and Taylor triggered strong applause by stating that they would vote down the plan.
"It may be people's illusions and just being concerned," Taylor said. "In the end [the plan] may be perfectly fine. But what people feel matters."
Council voted down the plan, to loud cheers, with Kershaw and Lutes opposed.
Thirkell then proposed a motion to revert to the earlier form of the plan: widening the highway on the residential side. Council voted it down. Thirkell then moved that the $2.5 million for the project be directed towards highway-widening in Selma Park.
Before voting, meeting chair and acting Mayor Warren Allen stated that the motion would have no teeth.
"The focus of the [funding] allocation was on Davis Bay Road improvements," he said. "And although this motion may be a feel-good motion, that money's gone."
The motion failed, with Thirkell, Allan and Coun. Alice Janisch voting in favour. Council added the improvements topic to its next committee of the whole meeting agenda Sept. 8.
