Harbour Spiel Online

Octover 2016 editorial: Fix highway link first

Brian Lee

 Today I had an appointment in Sechelt. I was running a little late but the road was dry and I knew that if I pushed the speed limit a bit, I could easily make it. After all, it was a weekday in September so the RVs and ubiquitous cars with two kayaks on top should be gone.

Who hasn’t made a sub-25 minute run from Madeira to Sechelt? It used to be a bit of competition — I’ve heard tales of running to Sechelt for smokes in half that time. Drive BC estimates the 34 kilometre trip takes 30 minutes but we all know we can safely do it under 25. Not anymore. On this day, as soon as I pulled onto the highway I was stuck behind a five-ton truck that was stuck behind an electric car that was stuck behind someone whose adult children are probably urging him to give up driving altogether. So, where the speed limit was 60, we did 35.

Usually I’m happy to get in the slow lane and relax while I listen to interviews on CBC radio with transgendered Syrian refugees tackling climate change — but today I was in a hurry. But there’s nothing you can do about it until you reach the passing lane in Secret Cove so when I did, I tromped on it and had the road to myself again. That is until I reached the other end of Secret Cove Road where I caught up to another line of Sunday drivers. So, I passed them on Halfmoon Bay Hill but by Trout Lake, I rode up on another senior who seemed to be struggling to keep his car rubber-side down. I got by him by Leaning Tree Road but after that there’s really no alternative but to join in with the throngs of West Sechelt commuters. So, I was late.

This summer was the busiest I’ve seen on the Sunshine Coast Highway. Though it’s nothing like the torture of driving on the other side, it’s increasingly difficult to make out what used to be an obvious spike in ferry traffic anymore — the 101 is plugged all day. And when there’s a bad accident, well, I hope you brought water.

Now, as if our rural roads weren’t already strained, there’s talk of building a bridge to the place we love to hate for its traffic congestion. Do some think our ridiculous little highway with its sudden curves and hidden driveways will suddenly accomodate whatever volume increase will be delivered by a fixed link? I would hope that during the recent feasibility discussions, those taking part recognize there can be no discussion of a fixed link without first twinning the Sunshine Coast highway. We’ll find out soon — a draft report is due this fall. Hopefully it also considers other infrastructure weaknesses like the south Coast’s limited water supply and our finite landfill capacity.

So far, much of the hysteria I’ve come across has been about the wash of crime that would flood our community. Sure, the pedophiles and drug addicts on the other side must be absolutely frothing for an alternative to BC Ferries but, right now, a fixed link would overwhelm the Coast’s infrastructure so quickly they wouldn’t make it past the off-ramp. Don’t get me wrong, the idea does appeal to me. It would bolster our fragile economy and what homeowner doesn’t warm to the idea of cashing out on a rise in property values? But all things considered, we have it pretty good here and if I wanted a life like on the other side, I’d still be there.

 

Harbour Spiel October 2016 issue

Download Harbour Spiel October 2016 issue

September 2016 editorial: Where the road ends?

Brian Lee

 Visitors and locals around here often grumble about the irony of living so close to so much water with so little public access to it. But we have plenty of access — it’s just unmarked and undeveloped. Commonly called road ends, they are 20-metre (66-foot) Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure right-of-ways extending to ocean and lakes. They are often overgrown or concealed by adjacent landowners who conveniently blend the landscape to give the impression of private property.

A rough map on page 14 shows them sprinkled liberally around Pender Harbour but they can be found everywhere development meets water. The issue quietly came into view last month with the dismantling of a popular trail in the Sakinaw Ridge development that provided access to nearby Sakinaw Lake (story p. 6). Sakinaw Lake has the least public access of any lake around and is basically privatized — but Pender Harbour isn’t much better.

Sure, there are marinas and a few natural pull-outs but, historically, the early planning that occurred here all but ignored including access for those who didn’t already live on the water. That could be because, at one time everyone did live on the water.

In my neighbourhood, there’s a road end across the street and many more down the road; all are obscured, unmarked and forbidding. Most are also steep which, according to Trevor Fawcett, SCRD parks planning co-ordinator, makes them expensive candidates for development and maintaining.

But the District of Sechelt, which doesn’t often get much credit — it’s been said it takes a generation to get a building permit there and if a key staff member hasn’t quit before lunch, they fire one to keep the average up — has managed to develop an impressive collection of beach access trails. You’ll notice the driftwood signs along the highway into Sechelt marking trails down to the beach. DoS parks supervisor Perry Schmitt told me he was hired to help kickstart the project 20 years ago.

Since then it has been a council priority and Sechelt now boasts 51 beach access trails from West Sechelt to Davis Bay and Tuwanek. Schmitt says they cost an average of $10,000 each to build but a recent steep one in Sandy Hook cost $20,000. Sechelt should be proud of their accomplishment but the DoS has one advantage SCRD rural areas like ours do not — they control the road ends that jut off the main highway.

A similar initiative here would require close consultation between the SCRD and MOTI, which could insert a time-consuming and costly step. Engineering or geotechnical reports might be required before either agency would accept liability for their development and subsequent management.

But that shouldn’t stop anyone from blazing a trail down on their own. Except ancient survey pins make property lines almost impossible to find — so, by doing so, you run the risk of trespassing on private property.

Here’s one solution:

With community input, the SCRD and MOTI could commit to surveying a selection of the best candidates in various neighbourhoods. The public would know exactly where these ignored public assets lie and then, armed with machetes and clippers, we could do it ourselves.

 

Harbour Spiel September 2016 issue

Download Harbour Spiel September 2016 issue