A bridge at the end of 6th street in Courtenay is a bit of a hard sell, if that's the only thing the City of Courtenay does.
Looked at in isolation, a bridge at 6th street is kind of a weird idea. It will go from a relatively unused part of a park to a street at the bottom of a steep hill that is used mainly by contractors and people going to a hardware store. It will be next to a few derelict or warehouse-style buildings, and not really connect to anything useable by people walking or riding bikes.
But the thing is, that's not even close to the only thing the city has planned for the area.
I was one of a 130 people who came to a presentation on May 14 put on by the city about their ideas for downtown. Broadly, the city is looking at . The first of which is the waterfront. The plan, which includes a re-imagining of the land currently housing the Home Hardware and lumber yard, is to turn the area into a kind of waterfront park with pathways, sitting areas, playgrounds, and other natural aspects. It wouldn't be a lumberyard anymore, and the other buildings owned by the city that are currently uninhabitable, would no longer be there. The bridge would connect a re-designed 6th street 鈥� with more active transportation in mind 鈥� to a more-popular and actively-used Simms Creek Park. Now it starts to make more sense.
But like I said, there were four areas the city is looking at. The next area is the downtown core. Under the new concept for downtown, 5th street "provides opportunity to accommodate special events and more regular markets such as the weekly farmers market."
The concept, as illustrated on boards posted at the event, showed a 5th street that is much more walk able, and floated the idea of permanently closing the road to vehicle traffic. That concept was a lot more popular than I would have thought, but would be subject to traffic studies and a lot more consultation before any decisions are made. So the bridge on 6th street would connect to this car-free zone, which would also be fed by improved connections at the planned transit interchange at the Courthouse, and improvements to Fitzgerald Avenue.
Which brings me to the next big move on the board: Fitzgerald Avenue as a key connector.
The plan is to "elevate Fitzgerald Avenue's role as a key connector between districts with further street-scape improvements, active transportation infrastructure and the promotion of mixed-use development. Establishing Fitzgerald Avenue as a welcoming gateway to downtown will ensure it supports the broader vision for the area." That would include things like turning intersections into "nodes" that will connect downtown and the Harmston neighbourhood, as well as improve densities in the area.
The Harmston neighbourhood is next on the city's list of big concepts. The goal here is to develop the area into a "dynamic community hub" that would have more enhanced programming and infrastructure. There were two concepts floated that would transform the area. The first is to make it into a community park and civic plaza, which would include closing Harmston Avenue to vehicle traffic, and expanding the park into the area currently housing the Share the Harvest community garden. The second option would be a more scaled back vision, with a more passive park and small plaza at 6th Street and Harmston Avenue. The conceptual drawings also include larger housing developments around the park (either four or six storeys) to add more housing to the area.
In a bubble, the 6th Street Bridge may look like a "bridge to nowhere." But when viewed in the context of the rest of the downtown plans, it makes more sense. A lot of these ideas are concepts. Ideas floated 10 years ago for the downtown core have only started to come to fruition, and there are lots of hurdles in the way of doing all of this. The bridge is just the next thing in line for downtown, a good chunk of the funding has been secured and it will have a measurable improvement to people's lives, letting more people visit downtown as the city grows.
Things change all the time, so why don't we get ahead of it and embrace change?
