New public hearings for Wesbrooke by the Sea and Rockwood Ocean Stories have now been scheduled, thanks to a revised traffic impact study the District of Sechelt was waiting on.
The two seniors’ developments along with the Clayton Family Lands development have been waiting on the traffic study by R.F. Binnie and Associates for months in order to get back to public hearing.
The study was needed to assess the increased traffic related to the developments, all within blocks of each other in West Sechelt, and it has several roadway improvement recommendations that developers will have to pony up the cash for.
The study says developers will have to improve the intersection at Highway 101 and Trail Avenue, connect Cowrie Street with Derby Road, connect Pilot Way to Medusa Street, enhance the pathway between Pilot Way and Shorncliffe and create pedestrian and cyclist pathways on all new roads, among other things.
The improvements will be costly, but exactly what that cost will be to developers and exactly when all of the works will need to be undertaken has yet to be figured out.
Not knowing the cost is an issue for at least one developer, Claytons Family Lands.
Planning consultant for Claytons Family Lands, Ray Parfitt, spoke to council on Aug. 2 to publicly address the issue. “[The report] doesn’t provide a capital cost estimate for improvements,” Parfitt told council.
“I guess the question is what’s fair and equitable and what’s the financial responsibility of the Ministry of Highways in a program like this where on Highway 101 it indicates there’s 75 per cent of the volume of street traffic?”
He noted Claytons Family Lands was eager to get to public hearing but he questioned if staff’s recommendation to place development agreements requiring the roadwork to be done by developers was “fair and equitable.”
One councillor, Dar-nelda Siegers, spoke to his concern. “At this point they don’t know what it’s going to cost them. They do know a percentage but they don’t know what the quantity is, which could really impact their building,” Siegers said. “It’s like asking for a blank cheque.”
Mayor Bruce Milne replied, “Not exactly. It’s asking for a contribution to a fixed cost that’s going to be determined as we move forward.”
Siegers was still uncomfortable moving the developments to public hearing without having the costing figured out first, but other councillors didn’t see it as a big sticking point.
“The roads have to be built. We know that. Development will pay for the costs of that. We know that,” Milne said. “And I guess if the costs are too high for development, they won’t proceed. We know that. Because it’s a voluntary private sector economy. Nobody’s going to force anyone to build anything if they don’t want to do it. And if they want to build it, they’re going to contribute their fair share.”
Milne added, “I’m not quite sure what happens if one developer goes forward contributing 40 per cent of the costs and other developers pull back and say ‘for this amount of money, I’ll wait 10 years.’ Then I guess the district moves forward or we have half-built roads, which I have seen in some municipalities.”
In the end, all of council was in favour of sending the three developments that had been waiting on the traffic impact study to public hearing and allowing staff to craft development agreements that will hold developers responsible for the costs of related traffic improvements.
All of the public hearings will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 23, starting at 7 p.m. in the District of Sechelt’s community use room, 5797 Cowrie St.
