A commentary by a Cobble Hill resident.
North Cowichan’s bold draft Town Centre plan is commendable, but there are glaring omissions — and if they are not dealt with, they will be costly for property owners throughout the region and the lower Island.
The size of the area of the Town Centre is massive when one considers Vancouver’s downtown.
North Cowichan’s plan covers an area one-third the size of downtown Vancouver, including Chinatown, Coal Harbour, Gastown, Yaletown and the West End.
The aerial view clearly shows a four-lane freeway running through the middle of the proposed Town Centre, something no 21st-century Town Centre plan should have.
This isn’t a bold new plan for the future, it’s a plan that turns the clock back more than a half- century in community planning terms. The lack of a transportation plan is a major omission in the plan.
It should show how this development will impact surrounding communities as well as the flow of people, goods and services.
Every local government loves to grow, but when the growth party is over the entire lower Island is left with costly transportation headaches.
Mending a transportation plan that is poor or not comprehensive enough is far more costly than doing it right from the beginning.
Congestion, lack of mobility, noise and poor air quality results in the public demanding action, and it usually forces governments to divert large sums of tax dollars to try to fix it.
Where is the pressure coming from to accommodate more and more people to the Cowichan Valley Regional District? I haven’t heard a rallying cry from residents in the Cowichan Valley.
I understand the need for affordable housing and for the provincial government to find solutions to the affordable housing crisis.
There has been land speculation since the province announced the location of the new hospital. Property values have increased, raising the cost of housing.
Where are the jobs with wages high enough to afford the planned “affordable” and “market” housing?
If there are no jobs paying more than minimum wages, most people living in the Town Centre will need to commute long distances for jobs that would enable them to live there.
Is North Cowichan and the region becoming a bedroom community for workers trying to make ends meet, while heading south or north to work? Congestion bottlenecks along the lower Island corridor will only get worse.
The province has forced North Cowichan into this position without any indication of how to solve the transportation mess, the logjam of vehicles travelling through Duncan and North Cowichan.
The Town Centre plan will not solve this, but only aggravate it.
Where is the provincial plan to move the highway far from where North Cowichan and the Cowichan Valley’s regional growth boundaries are being planned?
Where is the plan for transit within the lower Island area that provides an enticing alternative to crawling through traffic chokepoints through the Cowichan Valley to the Victoria corridor in thousands of personal vehicles daily?
North Cowichan need not be singled out. Almost every local government has failed to plan thoroughly. Our governments should take the time to get it right.
There are solutions to fix what has already happened. Let’s not dig the hole deeper.
Growth has limits. Growth needs ever-increasing infrastructure and servicing costs such as schools, parks, health care, policing, sewer, water, waste, etc.
It’s time to break from the 20th-century planning failures by developing a comprehensive lower Island plan that doesn’t resemble the traffic quagmire of Metro Vancouver.
It’s time to allow a real and honest comprehensive public consultation process, co-developed not by expensive outside consultants or those seeking to enrich themselves, but by the public and its elected officials and staff sitting around the table as partners, not foes. There is time to get it right. There can be a bright livable future for all of us to be proud of.
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