City not doing enough to fix roads (infrastructure)

West Kelowna’s general manager of Development Services, Nancy Henderson, says there was a 48 per cent increase from 2016 to 2017 in the number of building permits issued.

Sounds good, but she makes no mention of the underlying problem. Our aging and rural road system and our inefÀcient intersections strain under the weight of 10 years of new development and trafÀc load.

Increases in building permits last year are great, but we’ve been increasing steadily every year for 10 years. We know we are the fastest-growing community in B.C.

But, our emphasis on attracting new residents overwhelms our attention, so much so that we have delayed or forgotten about improving road infrastructure, which has decreased quality of life for established residents.

In our planning and spending, there must be some effort by the municipality to improve and alleviate some of the very visible added strain on our rural roads.

Except for cosmetic beautiÀcation, there have been no practical improvements that aid traffic movement through our many key chaotic intersections over the 10 years.

Last year, the Ministry of Transportation said West Kelowna’s Dear editor: roads were at 75 per cent capacity, but that is a 24-hour average.

The best time to drive around the Westside is 5 a.m., but during peak trafÀc hours capacity jumps, roads becomes clogged and our unmarked intersections become even more chaotic and unsafe.

Established residents have learned to avoid driving around Westside at certain times of the day. This kind of avoidance chokes economic activity for main street’s brick-and-mortar outlets the municipality wishes to help.

DifÀcult driving and access makes online shopping at home easier than local shopping.

West Kelowna has been carrying forward a deÀcit of a poor rural road system since we incorporated in 2007. New growth exacerbates this deÀcit.

Growth is of course important, but not without consideration of the real impact upon existing road system. No where does Ms. Henderson mention any municipal plans to improve our municipal roads or intersections that are expected to support all this new growth?

My family came to the Westside 27 years ago. Back then, the Westside had only three routes if you travelled the bridge to Gorman’s mill through our community; Shannon Lake Road/Old Okanagan Highway, Boucherie Road and Highway 97. These have not changed in 27 years, except today, there are eight times the number of drivers using them who are much more distracted.

The new rental units on Carrington Road are welcome if rents are affordable? Rent levels of $1,100-$1,200 per month for one-bedroom apartments are not affordable for minimum-wage earners.

After taxes, a renter still requires a vehicle and a cellphone to be employable, so they can not afford to live alone.

This means for 264 units, there could be up to 528 new vehicles using the Carrington and Gellatly Road intersection everyday, which already during peak trafÀc periods becomes an inefÀcient, chaotic and a dangerous intersection.

How come development services has not mentioned any improvements to that intersection in conjunction with the development of the new rentals?

Growth has accentuated the inherent problem in our antiquated rural road system that has been ignored by our municipality and council over the last 10 years even though roads have been consistently the No. 1 concern in all our citizen surveys since 2007. Jon Peter Christoff, West Kelowna