A crowd of 250 people voiced angry opposition to Sechelt council's Sept. 15 decision to endorse a safety-targeted Davis Bay highway-widening plan at a public meeting at the Seaside Centre on Thursday night, Oct. 7.
Municipal staff had convened the meeting, at council's request, to present information and gather public input into a plan intended to minimize highway-widening impacts: widening the popular Davis Bay sea walk for the 150-metre length of the construction zone.
After a one-hour open house, during which District staff answered questions and heard public input, Emanuel Machado, Sechelt's manager of sustainability and special projects, gave a short formal presentation of the project. The project entails widening the sea walk with a concrete expansion supported by pilings, plus adding a safety rail to the waterside.
Machado explained that project plans are a "first draft," and encouraged attendees to help shape the project by filling in comment cards with feedback on things such as: what landscaping they would prefer between the sea walk and a bike lane, and whether they would prefer the safety railing to be made of wood or metal.
The crowd quickly began to rumble with discontent and demanded that a microphone be passed to attendees. After a moment's hesitation, municipal staff complied.
As angry comments began to fly thick and fast, it became clear that attendees hadn't come to discuss the sea walk expansion project; they wanted to talk about the already-approved highway widening plan.
Attendee after attendee expressed anger, a sense of betrayal over Sechelt council's Sept. 15 reversal to endorse the highway-widening plan, and a feeling of being blackmailed by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure into a plan that clashes with local priorities.
While a few attendees voiced minority opinions -that it would be a pity to lose $2.5 million, or that a stoplight at Davis Bay Road would be useful for parents dropping off their children at Davis Bay Elementary School - the majority of speakers voiced unified and vitriolic opposition to the highway-widening plan.
Editor's note: For more details about the meeting, see our print edition and on-line coverage on Oct. 15.
