Up front: Putting North Cowichan composters ahead of the curb On stage: Shawnigan Lake drama students get a little Grease-y
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Friday, April 6, 2012
The road to nowhere Road washed out: Five Cowichan Station families cut off, provincial authorities say it’s not their problem Krista Siefken
News Leader Pictorial
F
ive Cowichan families have literally been left stranded after their road collapsed three weeks ago. The residents of a Doupe Road subdivision in Cowichan Station lost public access to their properties in a March 16 washout. Now, they have to drive through a farmer’s private cow path while they sort out who is responsible for footing the road’s repair bill: B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation, its contractor Mainroad, or the homeowners themselves. “Mainroad and the province are saying that this is a private road, but we’re hoping we can work on something with them because, if nothing else, we really need to learn some things here,” said Sybille Sanderson, acting manager of the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s public safety department. The road was built 40-some yyears ago, probably by BC Hydro, Sanderson explained. A And when the subdivision was bbuilt, the access road was built on an easement of private property — with approval from the Ministry of Transportation. “We feel frustrated,” SanderSybille Sanderson: son said. “We don’t own roads, frustrated w we don’t have public works, so all we can do is try to facilitate bbetween the h owners and the province, and try to get something resolved here.” Those owners, including Luc and Laurel Perron, have obtained three different quotes to gauge the cost of repairs. They were all in the neighbourhood of $70,000.
“So with ¿ve homes, that’s between $15,000 and $20,000 for each family,” Luc Perron said. “None of us can afford to pay that much.” The Perrons feel stranded by poor engineering and bureaucratic buck-passing. “Why do we pay property tax?” Laurel Perron wondered. “We get absolutely no bene¿t. We are not on sewer or water. We pay extra for garbage pick-up that can no longer pick up. The kids at the blocked end of the road can’t even get to their school bus now. “We have an elderly woman on this road, too. If an emergency vehicle is required, by the time it gets through the farmer’s muddy ¿eld and barn yard, any one of us will probably be dead.” Sanderson noted the CVRD is waiving the tipping fee at Bing’s Creek so the families can dispose of waste, and the school district has made alternate arrangements for student pick-up. Sanderson has also advised local emergency agencies about the problem on Doupe Road, with local ¿re¿ghters already visiting the site to get the lay of the land in case they need to get to one of the ¿ve homes in an emergency. “We’ve tried to make sure all those kinds of
things have been taken care of,” Sanderson said. But she admitted the farm road access is “not ideal.” “It’s not something any of us would think of as a long-term solution.” It’s also the reason the Doupe Road collapse has been denied provincial emergency funds. “We’ve talked to Emergency Management B.C. a few different times, and because there is another access route, it’s not something that quali¿es as a public safety concern,” Sanderson said. And it’s not looking likely that any provincial department will step in. “At the western end of Doupe Road is a onekilometre section of road, which is on private property and locally referred to as Doupe Road. The wash-out occurred on the privately owned section of the road,” explained Ministry of Transportation’s David Karn in an email to the News Leader Pictorial. “The responsibility for repairing the private road rests with the land owner.” Mainroad agreed. “This road falls on strata land, so the property owners of the strata are likely working
with their insurance provider to get the road repaired,” Mainroad’s Niki Taylor said in an email to the NLP. But the Perrons and Sanderson con¿rmed insurance providers will not cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding the road. And the Perrons wonder why the government bodies that approved the subdivision and its road are claiming they’re not responsible for it. “If an emer“My lawyer looked into all the title docugency vehicle ments, and we realized is required, by the easement is not even where the road is, so the the time it gets road is not where it’s through, any one supposed to be,” Luc Perron added. of us will prob“I don’t know how ably be dead.” the subdivison got approved, because they’re supposed to make sure there is access... and if the road was in the proper location as per the easement documentation, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”
Perron
courtesy the Perron family
A collapsed access road has left a Äve-home Cowichan Station subdivision cut off for three weeks while authorities play pass-the-buck about who is responsible for Äxing it.
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