North Cowichan council has decided not to apply for a federal grant to help pay for a project that would see bike lanes and other cycling safety improvements installed along Sherman Road, from Somenos Road to Canada Avenue.
In a tie vote, council defeated a motion at its meeting on Feb. 19 to apply for a grant from the federal Active Transportation Fund to pay for 60 per cent of the approximately $2-million project, with the municipality expected to pay for the rest. A tie automatically results in a motion being defeated.
The municipality received some negative reaction from the community on the proposed project, with many raising concerns about the loss of street-side parking places in the increasingly congested area to install the biking infrastructure.
Coun. Tek Manhas said the area is already experiencing congestion issues, especially on the weekends as people attend activities at sports facilities.
“So taking away 50-odd parking spots is ludicrous I think,” he said.“I live across the street from Mt. Prevost School and I don’t see anyone riding bikes to school. Also, I don’t care if we get a grant or not as we’d be just adding on to our costs for future maintenance.”
A staff report on the issue said that, as recommended in North Cowichan’s recently updated Master Transportation Plan, staff are working to assess the potential implementation of several “quick build” active-transportation projects, and one such project is to create protected, two-way bike lanes along a 1.7-kilometre section of Sherman Road, from Somenos Road to Canada Avenue, at a total cost of $1,960,000.
In response to Manhas’s concerns, Coun. Chris Istace said the reason that not many students use bikes to get to school in the area is because Sherman Road has the highest reported speeding in North Cowichan, so it’s very unsafe.
He said the biking infrastructure would actually help relieve the congestion in the area.
“You have the curling club, soccer fields and schools and you worry about parking, but cycling actually reduces congestion because there’s less traffic and cars taking the parking spots,” Istace said.
Coun. Christopher Justice said considering municipal funding for the project is tough to conceive during the difficult budget process North Cowichan is going through, but there’s also some really great reasons to support it.
“The project won’t be budgeted until 2027 and we won’t be obligated to proceed with it even if we get the grant,” he said. "There’ll be a new council by then, so I think we should apply for the grant and, if we get it, let the other council cogitate over it.”
Coun. Bruce Findlay said he's hesitant to move forward with the grant application for a number of reasons, including the fact that council has received a significant number of negative responses to the project from the community.
“The loss of 50 parking stalls alone is concerning, as well as the traffic from the new affordable housing project beside the curling club, the pressure for street parking during soccer season, and the fact that we haven’t costed out what it’s going to take to do street cleaning and snow removal,” he said.
Coun. Mike Calijou also raised concerns about the loss of parking spaces.
“As well, there will be ongoing maintenance costs and this would divert funds that could be better used elsewhere in my opinion,” he said. “The initial cost of putting in this $2 million infrastructure project is going to cost us we go along.”
Mayor Rob Douglas pointed out that North Cowichan has learned from the public survey taken for its Master Transportation Plan that one of the reasons people don’t feel safe biking along Sherman Road is because the infrastructure isn’t there to protect them.
As for increased congestion, he said the municipality is going to see more and more of that as it continues to develop and the population grows, and this project would help get more vehicles off the road.
“My last point is that we’re not actually committing to funding this project right now; all we’re saying is to direct staff to submit a grant application,” Douglas said. "If we are successful, we wouldn’t be implementing this project for another couple of years at least, and in that time, maybe we can get provincial money to also help pay for it.”
The motion was defeated in a 3-3 tie vote.
