Is Wine Trail worth its huge cost?

Editor: At the West Kelowna city council meeting this week, an update on the second phase of the Boucherie Wine Trail was received.

In short, here we go again. They learned nothing from the phase one development and have basically approved the following:

For Stuart Road to Ogden — a length of 1.3 kilometres (not including side street merging) — cost estimates are now at $8.755 million, which is over budget by $2.469 million or 39.5 per cent.

The phase one cost was budgeted at $2.6 million for a similar 1.3 km. It was reported that turning lanes at Anders would cost $60,000 and a roundabout will cost approximately at $505,000, possibly not including potentially needed land acquisition as such discussions are still in the negotiating stage.

If we build the road as recommended by ICBC, we “could” receive some funding of around $300,000 for roundabouts and bicycle lanes (although with the ICBC financial situation, this may not happen).

The design will be a wider road to accommodate a bicycle lane on both sides, a sidewalk on one side, two boulevards to divide the road from the bicycle lane, some underground electrical, street lighting of some sort (although not mentioned), a roundabout at HudsonBoucherie, a roundabout at AndersBoucherie, the need to close off Stevenson and Skyline Streets where they meet Boucherie (although this is still being considered), building a new entry roadway at Douglas Street to Beaumont Winery (which will most likely be paid for by the taxpayers), a divided Hudson roadway entry to the new roundabout, a new main water pipeline running the full length, no mention of transit stops except at the Stuart Road location, and other discussion items mostly pertaining to road grade issues and that drivers cannot handle Boucherie, Teal and Skyline roads in the winter months.

Coun. Rosalind Neis stated “that the price tag to do this road is, in my opinion, is an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars … This project is massively over designed … Does Boucherie Road need to be improved? Absolutely, but to this extent? We have bigger needs in our community than making a pretty road into a wine trail.”

Coun. Bryden Winsby stated in connection with the closure of Stevenson and Skyline roads, that he drove the area and determined that “I would not want to live here if I had to go on Teal and on Skyline uphill without being about to get out onto Boucherie … I am concerned, generally, with the design we’re looking at … improvements to that road are going to create another problem and that’s speeding … the design that we are looking at does not accommodate anyone that has to pull off the road (due to vehicle failure issues) … I’m getting quite concerned that we are not helping traffic too much, we’re making it pretty … For the kind of money we are looking at, it had better work, and at this point in my mind, it doesn’t work.”

The mayor and remaining councillors appear to want to proceed, but also have concerns as outlined in the webcast.

We are on Neis’s side. The road up Glenrosa is in terrible shape. There are areas in Smith Creek that need upgrading. The city only spends $600,000 per year on “new” sidewalks (which buys us approximately 1,400 feet or 0.4 km of sidewalk — not much) yet they want to spend $8.755 million on 1.3 km of road.

Perhaps the city should consider proceeding with the Boucherie water main upgrade at an estimated budget of $1.5 million, then do decent repairs and perhaps widening of Boucherie Road with minor traffic control considerations at the Hudson-Boucherie intersection for a budget of $3 million (no roundabouts at this time) thus leaving $4,255,000 that could be spent putting traffic camera speed traps along the route and fixing roads and sidewalks in other locations.

Would this not be a fairer way to spend the taxpayers money? Do we need a sidewalk/bicycle lane on Boucherie for kids? Absolutely, but we have all lived with it the way it is for many years and we can wait a little longer.

If the city does want to proceed with the $8.755 million project, perhaps they can use the $730,000 per year we taxpayers are forking out for a City Hall reserve.

There were all sorts of other comments, suggestions, considerations, liability issues, fumbling etc. that can be seen at the city website (westkelownacity.ca/ 554/Webcasts, Sept. 19 meeting, Item 9.3.1 Wine Trail Phase 2). All taxpayers should take the 90 minutes to see the full discussion. It is your money they are spending.

Richard McLeod, West Kelowna