City of Powell River Council has approved an application to extend its biking and active transportation corridor from Joyce Avenue to the Willingdon Beach area.
At the March 5 city council meeting, councillors voted to endorse a grant submission for this active transportation project to BC Active Transportation Infrastructure Grants Program 2020-2021, and that $54,850 of the funds previously dedicated from the Community Works Fund for the unsuccessful 2019-2020 application to BC Bike be allocated as the city’s contribution toward this project.
At the meeting, councillor George Doubt said the application was for an extension of the city’s bike trail program that would connect the Willingdon Beach area with Joyce Avenue. He said it is an active transportation route, meaning it’s not for bicycles only, but is also for walkers and people using all forms of alternative transportation.
“It’s very important to the city,” said Doubt. “It replaces a Bike BC grant for last year.”
Doubt said councillors heard at a committee of the whole meeting previously during the week that it looks like a good connection and will connect the city much better.
At the committee of the whole meeting on March 3, director of infrastructure Tor Birtig outlined the project. He said his presentation encompassed a multi-use path.
“As you are aware, we have spent more than $1 million on bike paths, with 50 per cent of that funding coming from the Bike BC program, and 50 per cent coming from our Community Works Fund,” said Birtig. “We are looking to apply for phase five on a revamped funding program. It is now active transportation funding as opposed to solely a Bike BC funding.
“This funding has now changed from 50 per cent to 70 per cent contribution [from the provincial government].”
Birtig said what the city is proposing is a path that links Joyce Avenue at Harvie Avenue, ultimately connecting to the Willingdon Beach area, with future phases perhaps allowing to connect along the beach trail to the Townsite. He said the path being proposed would start at Harvie and Joyce, go down Harvie until Ann Avenue, above Lesley Crescent, to Abbotsford Street, following Abbotsford down to the area that abuts the houses on Alberni Street and through the forested area from the foot of Abbotsford to Powell River Historical Museum and across to the crosswalk at the Willingdon Beach area.
“This proposal will have minimal disruptions to parking,” said Birtig. “We may lose one or two stalls around the museum, but what we are proposing along Abbotsford are sharrows, so there would be no parking disruption in that area. Since we already have the funding in the budget from last year on our proposal that we were not successful in, we have funding available to us from that.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked if the city was making sure that pathway has good accessibility.
Birtig said because of the grade, some of it is going to be hard to achieve on the stretch of Abbotsford Street.
“That grade is probably more than 12 per cent,” he said. “It’s not going to be adequate for your standard wheelchair access.”
Committee chair councillor Jim Palm said the city has invested more than $500,000 in bike lanes and this latest application is just another $55,000 because of the 70 per cent funding from the province under the new program. Palm said he was disappointed the last application to extend Powell River’s cycling network to BC Bike did not go through. He said he thought it was a better plan than the one currently being proposed, but the funding formula has changed.
In a report to the committee, Birtig stated that where the old BC Bike program was focused on cycling infrastructure, the new grant program focuses on awarding grants to applicants with proposed projects that promote accessibility and all forms of active transportation.
Total cost for the project, if granted, is estimated to be $182,833, with the city being responsible for 30 per cent of the funding.
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