Jack Wilson knows he won’t be sitting at the Qualicum Beach council table for long, but there’s one or two details he says he would like to deal with before November’s vote sees him take his leave.
One of them, he said at Wednesday’s special council meeting, is the need to improve the paving on Highway 19A near the Shady Rest and the moribund Crystal Terraces development.
“I won’t be around much longer, so is there anything scheduled for the reconstruction of Highway 19A around the beach area by the Shady?” he asked. “We’ve been talking about that for eight years and it never seems to come forward as a project. That’s the place that needs the most work in the whole town.”
In response, town engineer Bob Weir said there have been pavement overlays along the highway right up to where the proposed major development was to have become involved.
Mark Brown jumped in, noting the town is currently in the process of taking care of some of the drainage in the area, which is not routed properly from the bank side onto the ocean side of the highway.
“We are looking at drainage crossings as well, before we do overlay and reconstruction,” he said.
Mayor Teunis Westbroek said he shares Wilson’s concern.
“That stretch is particularly bad,” he said. “We were waiting for Crystal Terraces.”
Westbroek said the town is constrained with what they can do because of private property concerns, but suggested having it repaved, with wider shoulders, as was done on Bennett Road.
“You made the lanes a little narrower, with a wider shoulder, to allow bikes and scooters and golf carts,” he said, urging staff to add the area to their list of priorities. “In the future, that would be the way to go.”
Staff agreed to look more closely at the needs of the site.
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