Duncan bypass would be a disaster
Dear North Cowichan mayor and council:
We cheer council’s wise decision against building a North Cowichan-Duncan bypass to relieve Island Highway congestion.
Our applause follows council’s June 4 decision to yank bypass options from our new master transportation plan.
Details are found in the June 13, 2024 Cowichan Citizen.
That bypass would mean ecological disaster by damaging vital watercourses, natural habitat, property values, and farmland.
Bills for such an invasive project would also cost taxpayers billions — all to invite more traffic to our Island while aiming to ease North Cowichan-Duncan bottlenecks.
Our climate-action and environmental bylaws, plus our Official Community Plan thankfully aim for smart growth while curbing pollution. Backing a bellicose bypass would seem to contradict our bylaws.
These cogent points seemed lost on councillors Findlay, Manhas and Caljouw. They voted to keep all options on the table through our master transportation plan.
But judging by our costly Malahat Highway upgrades and our Nanaimo bypass, more highways simply spell more vehicles, more sprawl and more pollution.
Our leaders must co-operate to reduce vehicle use. That does not include another expensive bypass.
It does include creating affordable, eco-friendly transit — a train of some form — on our sadly derelict island rail corridor to help pull folks out of their cars.
Yours in green transportation alternatives,
Peter W. Rusland,
North Cowichan