RVI eve ii4 FAUSITARS

Cre EDS

Mtr Vatwoeaat

Ali the best of
the season

On behalf of the staff and
youth at the Peninsula
Youth Centre, we would like
to wish a Merry Christmas

and thank all of the support-

ers who have donated both

, time and money to the PYC

‘to help such a great cause.

Your community spirit
and generosity highly con-
tributed to raising the public
profile of the young people
of the PYC. In the past year,
we saw many of our youth
enthusiastically participate
in community events such
as the Sidney Summer Mar-

- ket, Sidney Days, the Town
Crier Competition; and even
cooking hot dogs and wash-
ing cars in support of Mr.
Bowcott. °

We look forward to a suc-
cessful New Year at the PYC
and wish you and your fam-
ily the very best in the new —

43°. millennium.

_ and all she wants
isto YELAX in her
new nightgown

_ from

Sweet Talk
S&S Lace.

also for that spacial lady
“camisoles *% Bie % teddies #6 slips % housecoats

‘Sweet Talk & Lace Lingerie

2420 Beacon Ave., (under the Pink Awning) 656-1002

: Phil lurpin
: "Coordinator
‘Peninsula Youth Contre

“Traffic flow can

strengthen the
‘downtown: core.

“About nine years ago oe
three councils ago, I was”
‘hired by the then new Sid-.
‘ney council: to argue the

point with the Hon. Rita

Johnson, Minister of Trans-
portation and Highways.
that the scheduled. (1991)

highway. interchange at

Beacon Avenue should be.
canceled immediately.

The premise being that
the interchange, and for.
that matter any interchange
| at that location, would kill all
/ opportunity for Sidney to
achieve proper revitalization
for the core area in the fu-
ture,

It took the Minister and
senior MOTH staff present
at that meeting only about
fifleen minutes to: under:
stand the issues involved

$60 per nersbt- ° , Advance Tickets Only
(Sorry No Refunds)

Glen Meadows

GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

ay
wy

ye Gourmet Hol Saicag’
ft © Gift Certificates

H © Smokes .
Seafood —
fh «-Teas &

‘Coffees

Gg ¢ Pastas —

t ‘geedunsenes *
dnd

ESOS LALI SAIN YR TC GI eR AY a

sot aa is mag et
ee

canceled. I believe that the
Peninsula mayors, includ-
ing newly elected Marie
Rosko who were also pre-
sent, understood as well.
The alternative was to
close Beacon Avenue at the
highway and to seek high-
way access. at locations

away from Beacon Ave.’

This ‘scheme ‘was. called

“The Other Option”, and ~

has been written about in lo-
cal: newspapers, . was.. fea-
tured in a short explanatory
video and was presented at
public meetings in the past.

The basics were, two way _
Beacon Ave. revitalization

with > highway. access -at
Ocean. Avenue and Mills
Road.. The . removal of
through traffic from the

core area. And please note’
. that, the Mills and Ocean in-
terchange designs in. the.
“Other Option” are far dif-

ferent from what the Town’s.

consultant proposed, the.
consultant's designs would :
~ cause far too much damage:
to the neighborhoods and”
: should never be built. °
oe “During the last’ couple of:
«days I talked to a number of:
- business people in: Sidney.
-who-had recently signed.a’~
petition to Council in favor
~ ofan interchange at Beacon:
im or Bevan Ave. I also talked®
with a retired town planner.
and architect in Sidney, who.
- had
~ Council in 1997 in connec-

initially . supported
tion with the one way traffic.
change on Beacon Ave., and
who now also supports the
return to two-way traffic on
Beacon.
These
caused me to realize that
the real reason for the rec-
ommended closing of Bea-
con Ave.,. although men-
tioned many times, has e¢s-
caped everybody. That is,.
no meaningful revitalization
of the core area, without
proper traffic management!
Right from. the begin-
ning, when | became in-

volved, | argued that in or-

der to. have successful revi-
talization, you have to get

Pak Includes Two,

Twenty Dollar Git
Certificates anda : "
Twenty Dollar «
Dining Card. ,

and the interchange was.

~= three

discussions ©.

Tha Just Jocys Gift

“ (RegularValue $60), fi

rid of non-destination traffic
in the core area. Only then
can you start to plan mean-
ingful revitalization, not just
cosmetic tinkering! -

‘In other words, you have
to close Beacon Ave. at the
highway :and create other
highway access points , suf
ficiently away from Beacon,
according to need and the

best. traffic management

plan for the Town and the
surrounding area: There is
no other solution!

Having done that, you
can then start thinking ofre-
vitalization scenarios in the
core area!

The rest follows easily be-
cause the issues of traffic

-friction and capacity short-

falls in the core area are
gone. The result is what is

shown in the 1997 brochure .

“The Other Option.”
Can you imagine what

would happen to a shopping
centre like Royal Oak; or’
‘Tillicum, or any other mall,
if you were to direct or allow.
through traffic or non-desti- -
nation traffic inthe confines :
~~ of the shopping centre .

when only one out of every
vehicles

for shopping?

“The centre will become © |
-dysfunctionalin-no time flat’.
and an economic: disaster. :
~ will follow. .
This is the case in Sidney.
- The core area will never

function as a shopping cen-
tre unless the same criteria

are followed as for a shop-

ping centre.

A month ago there were
several feature stories in the
Times Colonist about “mall
creep.” It pointed to the dev-
astation of town cores be-
cause. of new. malls and
shopping centres close to

~ the towns:

Anybody. who has trav-
eled will have seen boarded

up main street pr operties in.
‘small. or mid. size. towns

where new shopping cen-

tres have been built. real:

ize now that the reason why
this happened has escaped
most people,

A: mn kes TO,
Rockports
Eecos
Mephisto
Birkenstocks |

BOCs: Hiking,
Cowboy Ete.
ALSO Sales of.

Moccasins, Work

Boots and Shoe Care
Products.

ne
a4 Ath Ste "ae
th 6 55,

ney 1a.

it
:

> Ee

actually
wants to” stop in: the centre

Somehow the general
public realizes that it takes
an architect to design a
large building, an engineer
to design a bridge, but when
it comes to traffic, every-
body who drives a. car
thinks that he is an expert.
Unless you. are properly
trained and have years of
experience, dont be
tempted to find so-called so-
lutions, the chances .are
they are the wrong ones!
Transportation engineer-
ing by trial and error is
something that Sidney can
ill afford and the powers
that be should do well to re-
member that! ;
Concerning the “peti-.
tion,” I would say to all busi-
ness owners.— don’t shoot.
yourself in the foot by de-
manding something that
will ruin your business in
the future.:And of course

- the “petition” hardly repre-

sents the wishes of the ma-

~ jority of Sidney’ s residents,

nor does it represent ail the.
business property.owners, |
since. the “petition was

>» signed by many tenants and

retail sales people who have.
“no stake in the value ofthe
: businesses or Properties.

~ W. Zonnenberg pig :

' Specialist (Ret).
_ -APEO, APEGBC

The - Peninsula News .
Review. welcomes. let-:
ters to the editor-on so-
cial, political and com-.
munity issues. The Re-
view reserves the right. |»
to edit for clarity, -
brevity, taste and legal-
ity. Letters must bear
the writer's signature
and must be in our
hands by 5 p.m. Friday »
for consideration. for
the following Wednes-
day’s paper, Please in-
clude a daytime. tele-
phone number (not for
publication).

‘JSTOCKING STUFFERS
GIFT Garltnnnle®

- stop m WTODAY!
. on BEVIN AVE,

eemene racer Cnt

____ Wednesday, December 15, 1999

_ Transportation Engineering — ib