All Roads Lead Down Garden Path: One Man's Opinion
By Ben Meisner
All Roads RV is finding itself a victim of City Hall’s "business friendly" atmosphere.
Back last winter the company came under flack for its operation on 1st Ave. At the time, All Roads had taken a rather worn out piece of ground and turned it into their RV parking lot. "Too many trailers not enough space" the City cried and the heat was on.
So earlier this year, the company made a major move (by the way with the blessing of the higher ups at city) to locate on Queensway, and they did.
More expense, more moves to keep in line with what the city wants.
Now last week All Roads RV was back before Council looking to jump more hurdles.
Why, if we have that "business friendly attitude that supposedly exists at the hall" why then are these people being subjected to yet another round of negotiations especially given the fact that City Hall brass encouraged them to go to the new site?
Reverse the roles, there was a time not too long ago when even mentioning the word of developing retail along Highway 16 West would bring a cry that could be heard in Vancouver.
Well that was then and this is now. The big boys have found Highway 16 West appealing and we have a stretch of road that now is akin to every other badly planned city in Canada.
Big development and big money talks.
Oh what about the little guys on Queensway?
Well they don’t account for much now do they?
I’m Meisner and that is one man’s opinion.
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Posted by: diplomat on September 3 2006 9:39 AM
They speak of long range plans for the Queensway.
What are the long range plans for Hwy 16 between Peden Hill and the bypass? Essentially we are developing mega stores on one side with poor access since there are no proper turning lanes, or service roads, or lights.
A good indicator of poor access is if one cannot take close to the same route back as one arrived by. Superstore is good. It accesses off Ferry and one can go any direction from that entry/exit. A light might be needed at that location, especially if there will be an exit at the same location to the stores going up on the north side of Ferry.
Not so for Costco. Coming form the north, if one accesses it prior to Cowart, one has to go up to Cowart to return north.
A similar situation occurs at the Westgate development. Accessing it from the west is easy enough, but going back west means going along the service road west to the lights at Westgate residential area.
Below Peden Hill again, the east side has the cemetary taking up much of the space, so there will be no other development there. The School District office will, one of these days, get some pressure on it to convert it to a higher end use. The area between that and the Casino is residential, which is not likely to change.
Then there is the Casino itself which also has some access problems, besides the problem of a gravel pit at the corner which really enhances it as one of the key intersections for travellers through the City. A wonderful image that presents. Does anyone have any clue what is supposed to be done there and when?
Finally, once the golf course has moved, it will be interesting so see whether the new commercial developments along there will have more reasonable access.
Right now the whole thing looks like a jiggsaw puzzle with very little planning going into it at all. I have no faith that it will all work out in the end. It will be a nightmare once the place is full of retail outlets.