Council for the Municipality of North Cowichan passed a motion at its Jan. 18 meeting to request that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure allow highway-only access to the 9090 housing development.

However, council also made it clear that 9090 will proceed regardless (and even in the absence of safe road access). The Municipality of North Cowichan previously retained a private company to provide them with a road safety study which concluded that Henry Road west was adequate to meet the needs of all the pedestrian and vehicle traffic that will flow from the new development, even though Henry Road has no shoulders, no sidewalks, and is only 4.4 metres wide in places contrary to Engineering Standards Bylaw No. 1851 that requires a minimum width of 7.3 m for a rural residential road.

Our newly-minted OCP indicates that all new housing developments should be pedestrian safe and designed to encourage pedestrian traffic. If MoTI denies the request a second time, then I worry for the safety of the residents along Henry Road (west) and those from this new housing development who will have to ride their bikes and push their baby carriages along a roadway that is barely wide enough on some corners for a single garbage collection vehicle.

I wonder what is the consequence when a municipality fails to abide by its own bylaws relating to road safety? Also, I find it interesting that our municipality chose to retain a private company to provide them with a road safety assessment when they could have applied for a no cost Road Safety Audit through ICBC?

Please take a drive down Henry Road and ask yourself if you would feel safe walking down this road if Henry Road (west) is opened up to the highway development of 100 three-bedroom modular homes.

Heather Thomas,

Chemainus

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