Saanich has posted the results of the Shelbourne community consultations to their website. Readers should note the strong emphasis placed on cycling by hundreds of respondents. The Shelbourne open house has been confirmed for Thursday the 27th, from 6 to 9 at St. Aidan's church on Palo Alto off Cedar Hill X Road. This is a public event to present the survey findings. Saanich has extended an invite to the GVCC to have a table at the open house, alongside the local walkability group. The offer is conditional, however. We're invited to meet with the public and to talk about cycling in the corridor area. BUT, this is not an opportunity for direct advocacy and lobbying for specific solutions (in fact such an approach would be contrary to the collaborative approach being taken by the Shelbourne working group). I'll be helping out in terms of setting up / taking down the open house materials and would be happy to man our table. I was thinking of bringing the maps that Michael and I presented to the working group last May as the main talking points. We can also have some GVCC brochures, etc. Assistance from other GVCC members who live in the Shelbourne area and are familiar with local issues would be welcome! This evening the working group met with the consultant that Saanich has hired to review transportation issues in the Shelbourne Corridor. The individual involved is an experienced planner with cycling related work in his resume. It was a very productive session lasting over 2 hours with lots of input on a range of transportation related topics. The role of cycling is certainly recognized. I believe the consultant will be attending the open house and looking for more input at that time. By way of illustration he referred to work his firm has done recently in Coquitlam that has brought forward multi-use / multi-mode recommendations for a corridor area similar to Shelbourne, all of which prominently feature cycling access that is physically separated from vehicle and pedestrian corridors.
Hello - an update on the Shelbourne Corridor planning discussions (that have been informally re-named the Shelbourne Valley planning discussions by participants; the goal is to de- emphasize the area as a transportation corridor, and to emphasize the area as a livable community).
Saanich Municipality has scheduled a community open house for the evening of January 27, tentatively at St. Aidan's church hall, to present the input from the community discussions to date. Many community members provided input and the emphasis is on a livable, sustainable community with amenities accessible by foot, bicycle, transit as well as vehicle. Given the history of planning in Greater Victoria, there has been a surprising acceptance of densification as a greening strategy - the days of not in my back yard seem to be fading. The place and role of cycling is certainly recognized.
Saanich has selected Urban Systems to report on challenges, opportunities, potential for transportation in the Shelbourne area. The company has worked in the Greater Victoria area before, most recently on the City of Victoria's downtown bike parking strategy. A second firm will be contracted with in the new year to look at a community design for the area.
At the working group's mid-December meeting a second developer presentation was made on a new building to go into the medium sized mall on the north east corner of Shelbourne and Cedar Hill X Road. The development will include cycling amenities, as well as LEED silver features, and an expanded sidewalk/boulevard. A stretch of bike lane will be installed over about 100 metres of Cedar Hill X. The discussion highlighted the willingness of developers to include cycling friendly features as part of the offsets they provide to the municipality in exchange for development permits. But it also highlighted the incremental approach to bicycle infrastructure that is dependent on re- development. And it also brought to the fore the strong interest from the immediate neighbourhood for a re-design of the vehicle traffic arrangements in the Richmond / Shelbourne / Cedar Hill area. Folks aren't opposed to bicycle interests but their focus is definitely elsewhere.
I've been asked about the timelines for the Shelbourne process. My sense is that while some immediate changes / improvements of interest to cyclists are doable, the kind of fundamental re- design that many involved in the process are looking for - not just cyclists - will take time. Reference is made to the 100 year plan for the Bowker Creek watershed as an example, without folks blanching. The big question is how and when will re- development along Shelbourne (and to lesser extent Mackenzie) occur. For example the developer of the building described above said his mall property is just too viable in its present format to re-consider re-development for many years. His description of the realities of working with the corporate owners of the PetroCan property at the corner was an eye opener as to the art of the possible.
A community the process, and cyclists, need to connect with is the residents of Gordon Head. Altho' their community association is represented on the working group, individual residents have not been particularly involved. Gordon Head generates a substantial portion of the vehicles operating on Shelbourne and the buy-in of residents to any changes to Shelbourne will be critical to a sustainable solution (in all senses of the word, notably politically). There is some feedback from the Gordon Head area that residents are not happy with the bike lanes installed just south of Mt. Douglas Park and that Saanich is being approached to make adjustments. Building a consensus with Gordon Head residents will be key to any long term, politically sustainable, solution.
The working group meets again in early January, and the date of a planned presentation by Todd Litman may be confirmed.
