Up front: Hand-made Cowichan dolls off to comfort Oklahoma kids Spotlight: Duncan’s bike-riding author/preacher left his Mark
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Friday, June 7, 2013
Andrew Leong
Leading Air Cadet Eric Magnison and Flight Corporal William Turner show their marksmanship in rifle range demonstration last weekend. They took aim during the 744 Cowichan Air Cadet Squadron ceremonial review and inspection June 2.
Stoney Hill Road debate back and stalled by three-road divide Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
T
he tortuous path in the Stoney Hill Road saga resumed Wednesday, with council paving more time for input. Stoney Hill Road’s $2.5 million route across forested Maple Bay Peninsula will likely be mapped by July 17, North Cowichan’s mayor says. Jon Lefebure noted he didn’t expect building of that upgraded, realigned, gravel road until at least 2014. But climbing costs, conservation and cultural logic could simply see the peninsula’s current municipal-forestry road straightened and made safer — essentially ducking higher bills without impacting sensitive areas, Lefebure indicated. Council returned to the bumpy-road debate with a staff report it ordered Feb. 6, delaying
decisions pending that report. “We passed a motion to accommodate consultation by July 17. That’s when we hope to have the consultative process concluded to choose which of the three routes to pick, and move ahead.” Council will now gather more feedback about those three options — each differing on how they pass through Bird’s Eye Cove Farm — from a group comprising Cowichan Tribes members, hill residents, citizens, and the farm’s owner. The 7.3-kilometre road is proposed to be upgraded, then wind to Fairweather roads east and west, plus Westshore Road near Octopus Point. A spur road, Stoney Hill 220, would lead to Paul Bourke’s land, as reached in a settlement agreement between him and council. Debate centres around the newest option, known as the residents petition road. Many of the proponents of the road — professionally surveyed on behalf of an area prop-
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petition was based on — or perhaps simply moving forward by following and upgrading the existing forestry road. “The settlement-agreement road has some of the same concerns, but not to the same degree. The residents’ petition road would have to climb two bluffs; the settlement agreement road only climbs one,” the mayor said. Bird’s Eye Cove Farm owner Heather Skoretz said she backs Bourke’s statement explaining the residents’ petition road is the best and only route to minimize impact on her farm. The RPR surfaced after a proper survey was done, she explained. The settlement-agreement road was only approximate — and deviations from the settled road could spark a whole new petition process, she said. While Skoretz will receive $300,000, from council and Bourke, in compensation for lost farmland, she’s afraid about how the renovated road will cross and impact her land. “It should only be up to me where that road goes; it’s my land.”
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erty owner — consider it the shortest, smoothest and best option. But council is balking after reports indicated rockwork costs for this would be some $615,000 more than an earlier estimate of Paul Bourke: $331,000. disappointed But Bourke says he trusts a professional roadbuilder’s estimate above that of a municipal bureaucrat “Council’s coming up with numbers to support what it wants to do,” he said. “We’re all pretty disappointed. I don’t know why they’re dragging this out. Council’s obligated to pass those bylaws.” Lefebure explained staff also said there are ecologically and culturally sensitive areas the residents’ petitioned road would impact. That leaves council returning to the settlement-agreement road — the route the road
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