Building a continuous waterfront walkway from Departure Bay to the Nanaimo Estuary could cost up to $41 million.
The City of Nanaimo released concepts, costs and the route for a waterfront walkway project to the public this week in hopes of getting feedback before politicians are given a draft plan this fall.
More than 100 people turned out within the first two hours of the event on Thursday.
Display boards show the trail could stretch from Departure Bay beach past Living Forest Campground and could carry costs for engineering and construction of $30-$41 million depending on how the public wants to travel between the B.C. Ferries terminal and Departure Bay beach. A raised pathway along the shore would cost $4.5 million compared to a $15.5 million elevated boardwalk.
There are also costs not included in the project, such as land acquisition and improvements to existing sections of the stretch between the ferry terminal and Millstone River.
“Everybody wants it, but until now we haven’t known what the cost is and we haven’t known which sections should be built first and what it should look like,” said Bill Corsan, the city’s deputy director of community development, who was hoping to hear at the open house if the concepts met people’s expectations and if they didn’t, what could be done differently.
“The feedback I think we’re getting from the broad majority is there’s wide support for this project and [they] want us to get started on it and are excited we’re making progress on it.”
Ken Ryan, who went to the open house, said the ideas are marvelous.
“That’s the thing that makes Nanaimo so nice is the access to the waterfront,” he said. “There are so many parks and it’s nice to have some way of joining them all and that’s one of the things that this does.”
Mark Mieras said his reaction to the displays was totally positive. For the last few years he’s been hearing about all these different ideas for Nanaimo and for certain segments of society, but he said this is for all Nanaimo. Everyone enjoys the ocean, lots of people enjoy walking and he said it connects neighbourhoods.
“We were willing to shell out millions and millions and millions for a hockey arena, to me this is for generations. I think it’s taxes well spent,” he said.
Resident Alan Parker said he found it unfortunate that to get around the Nanaimo Shipyard pedestrians are directed onto Stewart Avenue. Cars are driving pretty fast and it doesn’t feel like you’re on a walkway of any kind, he said, adding that he finds money spent on the boat basin, where there’s a boat ramp and sidewalk, redundant and he’d rather see the money used to prevent people from walking on Stewart Avenue.
The open house poster boards are on the city website at: www.nanaimo.ca/goto/waterfrontwalkway. An open house happens tomorrow (Sept. 30) at Maffeo Sutton Park’s Lions Pavilion from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
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