New BC Transit facility takes another step

Concerned residents all dressed in green gathered in the City Chambers Monday night to hear Council rezone a property near Foothills Boulevard & 18 Avenue. This spot is the proposed new home of a BC Transit facility, which would house the new eco-friendly bus fleet, washing station, fuel pump, and garages.

Many residents, like Susanne Williamson, believe in the project, just not the site. Williamson started an online petition for the facility to be built elsewhere, which now has over 1,100 signatures. She says it’s more than just the dog walkers and joggers using the nearby path that will be affected.

“There are 1,000 kids that participate in outdoor programming at the PGYSA, and that doesn’t include all of the adults that participate in the women’s and the men’s soccer leagues as well. There’s lots of people that are going to be potentially impacted by the activity of a transit facility in this location.”

As it currently stands, Mayor Lyn Hall says there are no plans to change the proposed spot.

“(BC Transit likes) the location because they see it as being more accessible, easier access then where they are now in the BC industrial site it reduces their footprint, so those are some of the pros to the site that they see,” he says.

As well as many attending residents, councillor Jillian Merrick was also opposed but for different reasons. Merrick says she’s unsure this facility is necessary and hasn’t been convinced otherwise.

“We’ve been told the facility will reduce deadheading and make more efficient use of overtime, but I want to know how many minutes a day this will the save of driver time? What is the reduced fuel consumption? What are the other benefits when it comes down to hard numbers and I just haven’t seen those,” she says, “I feel we’re being forced to move forward on this without due diligence because of the other partners contributing such large funds to the projects.”

All other attending councillors were in favour of each recommendation.

As it stands, the building itself hasn’t been approved. A third reading and public hearing will be held in the city chambers at a later date.