GOLDSTREAM Diplomatic practice
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NEWS GAZETTE
COMMUNITY: Wartime love stories told /A5 SPORTS: Columnist helps line up sports week /A12 HOMEFINDER: Open houses provide flexibility /A17
Friday, February 05, 2016
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Traffic heads in and out of Colwood on a busy Wednesday afternoon on Island Highway. Traffic flows are just one of many topics addressed by the City of Colwood as it prepares to roll out its new transportation master plan. Arnold Lim/ News Gazette staff
Planning on a busy future in Colwood City hits the road with its new transportation plan water management, utilities and alternate travel modes into developments, he said. While it sometimes means investing more early to achieve benefits down the line, it is one of the key approaches in the new master plan. Among the other priorities it outlines are building out vibrant centres – compact mixed-use centres that bring work, shopping, socializing and living to one area – and creating liveable neighbourhoods. That can include encouraging active transportation, traffic calming and connections to multi-use trails, and expanding walking, cycling, and transit infrastructure and services. McCusker said the municipality’s population could double before it is close to being built out. “It’s going to be busy. It’s not just about transportation, it’s about land develop-
ment. It’s about employment, and the more employment we can get out in the area through employment-geared development, or home-based business – all of that helps take trips off the road,” he said. Working to support transit growth, and densifying development around nodes specified in the official community plan will also help reduce traffic, he added. Coun. Cynthia Day said creating safe routes to school is a priority. “If we achieve the goal of even a majority of kids walking to school, that would be a huge success,” she said. “We have to look to doing the easy things first and that means the short trip, making those friendly for people to do. “It’s a work in progress and it will be a bit of a patchwork quilt for a while. I am very happy that Colwood is moving
towards a standardized transportation (plan) that allows for cyclists and pedestrians and assures we acquire whatever rights-of-way that are necessary.” The transportation master plan shows that 89 per cent of West Shore residents use cars, 3.5 per cent take transit, one per cent cycle and 4.5 per cent walk to get around. As Colwood grows, the plan calls for car usage dropping to 75 per cent by 2026, and to 70 per cent by 2038. Getting there however, is going to take investments in infrastructure. “We have some money, but we need more and need to be creative on how we can make that work,” McCusker said. “One of the bigger challenges we face is we need density around the nodes (like Royal Bay).”
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mmet McCusker points to a stack of papers. Colwood’s deputy director of engineering leafs through the 135 pages before flipping through another stack of appendices lined with colourful maps. The document, Colwood’s newest transportation master plan, is finally finished and ready to hit the road. “We are really excited about the transformational change within the city, doing it in a way that’s a ‘complete streets’ way to do it,” he Arnold lim said. “It’s the ideal … (so Reporting when) we go and do a street, we walk away and know that street is good for 50 years.” Complete streets is an approach to planning that includes beautification, rain-