Moves to push forward a pair of bikeway projects in Oak Bay fell flat at a council meeting.
After over two hours of debate, council voted to defer the matter, quashing hopes that the projects would advance on May 12.
The long discussion revolved around a motion that, if passed, would have given staff direction to modify proposed plans for the Henderson and Haultain-Estevan bikeways – nudging the projects ahead following a council deadlock at a previous meeting.
Starting in the Village, the Henderson bikeway would run north-south through Oak Bay, ending near Camosun's Lansdowne campus, while the Haultain-Estevan route would stretch east-west along Haultain and Estevan streets to Willows Beach.
Kick-started in 2022, the proposed projects would help address a lack of formalized cycling pathways in Oak Bay, bolster intersection safety and improve connectivity to regional paths, according to the district.
Over the past three years, the bikeways have received mixed feedback from the public.
“As a mother of two children who fall within the Oak Bay High catchment, the Haultain-Estevan Avenue infrastructure will make a huge difference for the safety of my children when they are high school aged,” Victoria resident Kalie Wilson said in a letter to the district. “Currently, the proposed route improvements would make our regular commutes to our nearest library in Oak Bay much safer. They would also make some of my children's favourite bike trips to Willows Beach and Carnarvon Park much safer.”
CHEFFE, a group of residents who live on Carrick, Haultain, Eastdowne, Fair, Florence and Epworth streets, has spoken in opposition to parts of the projects.
“We support bikeways on our streets, but they have to work and be safe for everyone," the group’s spokesperson Bruce Kilpatrick said in a news release. "The only way to ensure that is to work with the people who actually live there and know the issues day to day, not just push ahead as if this were simply lines on a map.”
The residents want to see plans rejigged to address vehicle speeding and “hazardous” intersections. They would also like more stop signs worked into bikeway designs and an enforceable parking strategy created to “stop streets from becoming narrow and unsafe tunnels of parked vehicles.”
Debating the motion, councillors also expressed a range of opinions. While Couns. Hazel Braithwaite, Cairine Green and Esther Paterson detailed their concerns on how the bikeways could negatively impact residents, Couns. Andrew Appleton, Carrie Smart and Lesley Watson spoke largely in support of the projects.
Before the motion died, council passed several amendments, one of which directed staff to return to council with a nature-oriented design for the Carrick Greenway – a block-long path open to cyclists and pedestrians, buffered on each side by vegetation and trees, “that balances enhancing the greenway as a pocket park, while providing improved and safe access as a transportation corridor for all users.”
This is an especially contentious aspect of the proposed Henderson route.
“The trail features large outcroppings of bedrock that display Ice Age glacial striations and serve as a natural play space for generations of children. Significant portions of these would be removed to accommodate the proposed bikeways, as would nearly half of one resident’s front lawn,” Kilpatrick told The Oak Bay News in an email. “[The] Carrick Trail is also an evolving pollinator corridor under the municipal Coolkit program, containing Garry oak trees, with additional native plants coming in the near future.”
Because the original motion failed, the amendments died, too. Not long after, Appleton stressed that compromise is needed to push the projects ahead.
“This was the route that was put forward by council, and we need to be very transparent and honest with the community that any of those options that we select will require compromise,” he said.
While Braithwaite agreed, she emphasized that the compromises didn't go far enough.
“There will be a lot of compromise, but I’m not sure if this compromise is enough of a compromise that I would like to see moving forward," she said. "I’m also in support of the bikeways, but this particular plan – I don’t think it’s quite right yet.”
Mayor Kevin Murdoch closed the debate with a message to the residents who attended the meeting.
“Thank you to those who came out ... and sorry for the lack of direction and clarity at this point, but we will get there,” he said.
