As Sidney debates Gateway project, overpass seen as essential
Sidney cites safety of school children as town debates Gateway development
Whether or not the proposed Gateway Shopping Centre goes ahead in Sidney, a pedestrian overpass at Beacon Avenue at the Patricia Bay Highway next to the development site is a must-do for safety reasons, says Sidney Mayor Steve Price.
The danger for people, especially school kids, trying to cross the highway now is “totally unacceptable,” Price said Tuesday. Even with crossing guards, the children face highway traffic heading to and from B.C. Ferries. “I don’t care if there’s a stoplight there or not because you get people shooting the lights; transport trucks shooting the lights and you get little kids standing about two feet away from transport trucks doing 80 miles an hour down there. “It’s not good.” Price said he’s been working on the issue for eight years with the B.C. Ministry of Transportation, well before any kind of shopping centre was proposed for a 10-acre airport site adjacent to the intersection on the west side of the highway. The province committed $1 million to an overpass several years ago, Price said.
If the $35-million Gateway project goes ahead, an overpass valued at $3 million would be one of the major benefits to the town, which would be linked east and west after being severed 65 years ago by the highway, Price stated.
Gateway, which would have 100,000 square feet of stores, is one of two commercial developments proposed for the area. Sandown Commons is proposed at up to 160,000 square feet a few blocks away in North Saanich.
A public hearing on Gateway tentatively slated for Sept. 12 at the Shoal Centre depends on what the B.C. Ministry of Transportation has to say about related roadway issues that are the responsibility of the developer. Sidney has requested that the ministry confirm by Friday that the developer Omicron has met the ministry’s requests.
If the ministry has further requests, the date will have to be pushed back, Price said.
Omicron’s president outlined the two-year process the company has so far undertaken this week at Sidney council. “They’ve met all the preconditions that we’ve put on them; they’ve provided all the additional information on the economic impact study, on the traffic study; they’ve come up with just an absolutely award-winning design for the pedestrian overpass,” Price said.
The Support Our Sidney group opposed to the Gateway project is seeking volunteers to hand out “Stop Gateway” petitions at downtown Sidney locations until Sept. 12.
SOS spokesman Richard Talbot questioned in a letter to council this week why Omicron is seeking a fourth grocery store and a fifth drug store in the area, even though its own survey shows a lack of support for such retailers among Peninsula shoppers.
The independent Urbanics study cites that 64 to 74 per cent of 350 respondents in all age groups surveyed by telephone in April did not see the need for more such retailers.
Whenever the public hearing takes place, council will then vote on third and final reading for the zone change after everyone has had their say, Price said. Currently, the land is zoned commercial by Ottawa, which leases it to the Victoria Airport Authority, while the town’s official community plan designates it as primarily commercial and municipal zoning is residential.
The airport authority is seeking primarily commercial zoning.
Written submissions can come in almost to the minute the hearing starts, Price said, correcting a mass emailing by SOS that states the deadline for written submissions is Sept. 6.
Talbot contended in a mass email that “as a speaker you don’t have to say much. Even ‘I am opposed to Gateway’ is enough! It is quantity not quality that matters now!”
Price responded: “It’s not about how many people turn up, it’s about the quality of the argument.”