We're all in favour of more parking and creating a vibrant downtown shopping and visiting experience, but the latest decision from Sechelt council to try to make this happen has left us scratching our heads.
Sechelt council has approved a proposal, to be put in place by the May long weekend, of dropping the speed limit to 30 km/hour in downtown Sechelt, installing new angled parking on Cowrie Street and designating Cowrie a westbound one-way from Wharf Street to Ocean.
We have no problems with creating more parking. Parking in the downtown area is seriously lacking, and with the influx of business and the impending tourist season bringing visitors flocking to the waterfront park adjacent to our office, we're all in favour of adding more parking. But this proposal has left a lot of questions unanswered.
Let's break this down a bit further: the Getting Around Downtown survey that the District put out in January solicited a mere 211 responses, with only 40 per cent in favour of approving the one-way traffic option - hardly an overwhelming majority of Sechelt residents responding.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) has serious concerns about this proposal, as does BC Transit.
In Coun. Doug Hockley's opinion, and ultimately council's who voted in favour, it's just some line painting that needs to be done. No problem. And if it doesn't work, easy fix - we'll just repaint. But letters to the editor and our opinion poll from last week say otherwise. Only 23 per cent of respondents said they're in favour of this change.
We wonder if there's been adequate consultation with area businesses and homeowners. BC Transit will be totally affected by this change, including altering their transit routes and moving the bus shelters that are on one side of the street to the other side. Did they ask the residents how they would feel if the bus shelter in front of Trail Bay Mall were situated right in front of their homes?
Has School District No. 46 been consulted, as they have land on that street? And what about all the feeder streets that go onto Wharf and Ocean? Signage will have to be changed, traffic patterns will have to be adjusted - all in just a little over a month.
We admire that council wants to create a more friendly and inviting downtown area, but it seems very little thought has gone into this proposal, which is just setting the stage for a traffic nightmare.
