Editor: The work may have stopped, but Darnell is not “done.” Standing at the foot of the street and looking up, the image is completely incongruous – lovely sidewalk and manicured boulevard on one side, road mulch on the other.
One side was indeed “revitalized” but the other was “Dogpatched.” We had a lovely grassed boulevard that we kept neatly mowed. Now, it’s been gouged out and backfilled. If on-street parking was required, why wasn’t the curb set back and another strip of blacktop laid down? We realize that it was a fixed-budget project, but it seems rather penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Surely there could have been some way to make the two sides more symmetrical.
Was there really a need for the landscaped boulevard and sprinkler system?
It looks lovely, but a simpler sidewalk on both sides would have been more equitable. And if people do indeed drive up over the rollover curb to park on road mulch, how long do you expect the concrete curb to last?
Esthetics aside, we are also concerned that the mulch abutting our property is sloped back into our yard, which will create a muddy swale with any substantial rain.
We had planned to replace our fence but are hesitant to do that now, if it’s just going to rot in a ditch of water.
Messages to Public Works went without answer.
Rather than enhancing the “curb appeal” of my property, we fear our property value has been somewhat diminished. To say we’re disappointed in the project is an understatement.
M.Connolly & D.Willis
Lake Cowichan
