When it comes to the proposed McKenzie Avenue interchange, Saanich is in a 鈥渄amned if you do, damned if you don鈥檛鈥� situation. The project aims to reduce traffic congestion along the Trans-Canada Highway, which would be beneficial to the environment, yet the new interchange will take a swipe out of a local park.
The province has chosen a partial cloverleaf design for the long-awaited interchange, but Saanich councillors voted 6-3 early Tuesday to ask the province to reject that plan and select another option. One of the objections to the province鈥檚 choice is that it will take 1.4 hectares out of the 20-hectare Cuthbert Holmes Park. Others are concerned about the new interchange pushing traffic issues into nearby neighbourhoods.
There鈥檚 always a price to be paid for development. In a perfect world, that price is balanced by benefits. But some councillors and residents believe Saanich will pay the costs while commuters from elsewhere will reap the benefits.
They have a point. If someone wants to live in Langford or Highlands and commute to Victoria, why should Saanich have to bear the pain of that choice?
One citizen told Saanich councillors he initially favoured the interchange, then realized the province was 鈥済oing to pave the park 鈥� for the benefit of a few people who live miles away.鈥�
It鈥檚 overstatement and understatement in the same sentence. The project will not pave the park, but will take only a small portion of it. And those 鈥渇ew people鈥� total thousands each day who find themselves prisoners of the Colwood Crawl.
The interchange is seen as the key to easing the constant traffic congestion and making the intersection, the most crash-prone on the Island, safer.
鈥淭he No. 1 bottleneck in British Columbia, outside the George Massey Tunnel, is right here on 91原创 Island at that particular location,鈥� Transportation Minister Todd Stone told the legislature last year.
The proposed interchange is at least 20 years overdue. It was supposed to have been built in the late 1990s as part of the 91原创 Island Highway Project, but those plans were scuttled in 1996, because of a capital-spending freeze and internal wrangling in the NDP government of the day, along with a dose of regional parochialism.
Saanich鈥檚 concerns should be heard, but it鈥檚 essential to make decisions for the broader good. We can鈥檛 build a wall around each municipality and tell each other to keep our problems to ourselves. It doesn鈥檛 work that way.
Is it fair that that the region鈥檚 two major highways traverse Saanich? Probably not, but it鈥檚 the unalterable reality. Failure to address the traffic problems will only make conditions worse, for Saanich and everyone else.
It is no small thing that a piece of a park must be taken for this project 鈥� green spaces and natural areas in urban areas are precious. But if means the Colwood Crawl can be alleviated, that means fewer pollutants spewing out over the park 鈥� a benefit for the cost.
Saanich councillors want the province to consider another option, but as with any major infrastructure project, no matter which design is chosen, someone will object, someone will claim to have a better idea, someone will claim the engineers had their heads in the sand.
Once upon a time, this interchange would have cost $30 million, but it was killed by politics and parochialism. Now, the price will be at least $85 million. Delays will add to the cost while traffic problems worsen.
Development usually comes at a cost. But so does lack of development.
