Nelson city council gave final approval Monday to a plan that will change the look of lower Hall Street and upgrade the aging water and sewer systems beneath it.
But council deleted a bike lane from the plan before voting on it.
The lane would have taken the place of several parking spaces in the 100 block Hall between Front Street and the CPR tracks. It had upset many business people in the Cornerbrick Building (at the corner of Hall and Front Streets) including Robyn Clark, co-owner of Kootenay Health Services, a physiotherapy business.
“People with disabilities and mobility challenges were not going to be able to access our services,” Clark told the Star after the meeting.
The change seemed to somewhat appease many of the approximately 30 business people who attended the meeting.
Randy Horswill of Home Hardware on Lakeside Drive was one of several business people who told the Star they are still concerned about access to the businesses in the vicinity during construction.
“At this point I am not comfortable they have a solid answer yet for us,” he said.
Much of the construction planned for Hall Street to replace aging water, sewer, and stormwater pipes (amounting to more than half the cost) had to be done even without the above-ground changes, according to the city’s public works director Colin Innes, so traffic would have been disrupted in any event.
The business people attended the meeting expecting to be able to speak to council, but were not given the opportunity to do so because the meeting was a regular council meeting (at which decisions are made and the public does not speak), not a committee of the whole (at which public input is invited but decisions are not made).
“They expected their voice to be heard by council, so this was in some respects a little disrespectful to the business that came out,” said Ed Olthof, the president of the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce.
Holly Wheeler of Nelson Chocofellar said she had expected to speak.
“I feel we and the businesses in this area are a large part of the community and we love Nelson and we love to be part of what is going on, and we felt we were being pushed aside.”
Asked about this consultation issue, Mayor Deb Kozak said following the meeting that there have been opportunities to be heard, and that she and her staff have had many emails from businesses and discussions with them.
“A couple of years ago before phase one went through, there was a Hall Street committee and some of these businesses were on it,” she said. “And at various points through we have had community consultations and consultations with business owners.
“As you saw tonight, there were solutions proposed and adjustments made. You are not going to please everybody but I think we have created a balance between access to business, adequate parking, safe streets looking out for pedestrians, and developing a park. I think business owners have been thoughtful and informed and they have told us what their needs are and we have addressed them.”
The updated plan was presented to council by Innes, accompanied by Rob Fershau and Elise Paret of the WSP consulting group. The plan is attached below.
Traffic flow at Hall and Lakeside
Council members had questions for Fershau and Innes about traffic flow at the Hall-Lakeside intersection, which will become a three-way stop with no access to the parking lot at the Prestige. (That parking lot entrance would move east up Lakeside Drive.)
One concern was that traffic would back up onto the CPR tracks.
But Fershau said his company has done traffic studies and modelling that shows that this won’t happen, and that traffic will move smoothly through the intersection.
“It won’t fail, it is modelled not to fail,” he said.
Some of the business people in attendance were skeptical about this.
“I can easily see it congesting up,” Wheeler told the Star, “and I would love to have the guy’s email because I am going send them pictures of when it has come to a dead standstill.”
Innes said the city is going to install wiring for traffic lights at the intersection in case they are needed in the future, and he added the intersection could revert back to its present configuration if the three-way stop does not work.
Asked if trucks and buses will have problems entering the planned new entrance to the Prestige, Innes said the owners of the hotel have expressed no concern about that.
Stormwater
Innes said the above-ground changes to Hall Street are an add-on to work that had to be done anyway, namely the replacement of aging water, sewer, and storm sewer infrastructure. How to deal with stormwater at the Hall-Front intersection has been a big challenge, he said.
There will be changes to road grades to facilitate flood prevention, and a stormwater outfall into the lake just west of the proposed park.
Fershau said the stormwater system has been designed with climate change in mind, anticipating 30 per cent more storms in the future.
The lakeshore park
Innes said construction will take two summers, starting at the shoreline and working up Hall St. Construction of the park at the shoreline needs to be done in July and August, according to Paret, because of fishery regulations under the provincial Water Sustainability Act.
This fisheries timing is the reason council is in a hurry to get the project out to tender. Another reason is that grants received for the project (about two-thirds of the cost of the project) need to be spent within specific time frames.
Councillor Anna Purcell said that in response to computer drawings of the proposed park released recently, residents have told her it looks “impersonal and Kelowna-like.” She asked if the city’s Cultural Development Committee was involved in the design, as was intended, and was told that it was not, although the city’s cultural development officer was on the original Hall St. committee and the committee has seen the most recent design.
Purcell said she wants to see designs by local artists and room for public art, and she cited the Gyro lookout railing. Innes and Fershau said the drawings were somewhat conceptual and that the kinds of local touches Purcell is looking for would still be possible.
Project funding
Two thirds of the $6 million project price-tag will come from federal and provincial government grants, and one third from the city.
Most of the city’s $2,180,508 contribution, according to Innes, will come from reserves that have already been set aside for necessary sewer, water, and storm water upgrades for the street.
The Hall Street plan is attached below.
RFD Hall Street Design Phase II.pdf by BillMetcalfe on Scribd