At any point, the Ministry of Transportation is going to reveal its latest incarnation for the Stickle Road-Highway 97 intersection just north of Vernon.
And when the plan is released, it will be interesting to see if ministry bureaucrats have stuck to their guns or they have remembered the fiasco that was Cosens Bay Road.
In a nut shell, the ministry announced in 2014 that it wanted to remove a 30-metre-wide strip from Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park so it could upgrade Cosens Bay Road.
Immediately, public opposition to the plan arose, with many residents expressing concern that a wider road could negatively impact the park’s ecosystem and allow utilities, such as electricity, to be expanded to the residential community south of the park.
Coldstream council vigorously opposed the move, while the Regional District of North Okanagan board also came out against the boundary adjustment.
The ministry sought to appease the angry hoards by shrinking the right-of-way to 20 metres, but other than that, the bureaucrats stood their ground and insisted that a boundary change was the only way to address road safety.
That is until Feb. 26 when a mid-morning press release indicated that the ministry was abandoning its boundary adjustment application and, instead, is pursuing a park use permit.
“The park use permit, which is currently being reviewed by B.C. Parks, will enable the ministry to achieve its goals on Cosens Bay Road while reducing the potential impact to Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park that a boundary adjustment would have presented,” stated the release.
The bottom line was the ministry was agreeing with what residents and local politicians had said all along: a boundary adjustment could have harmed the park.
It’s better late than never but a lot of public frustration, as well as the expense of fancy plans and public relations, could have been avoided if the ministry had just accepted community wisdom right from the get-go.
And that’s what brings me back to Stickle Road.
It’s expected the ministry will release a plan that will see 20th Street extended from Rona to Vernon Volkswagen so motorists can travel from Stickle Road to Vernon without using the highway.
However, the ministry was told loud and clear after two other failed proposals that a vast majority of residents, businesses and local officials want a traffic signal at Stickle Road.
Linking Stickle Road to 20th Street will do nothing to help slow down southbound highway traffic zooming into Vernon, improve access for businesses and residents on the west side of the highway or make conditions safer for transport trucks frequenting Auto Mile businesses.
It’s likely demands for a traffic light will continue so one has to wonder why the ministry continues to go in another direction. One possibility is the perceived arrogance within the department.
But as was demonstrated with Cosens Bay Road, public opposition can force the ministry to ultimately shift course.
The fight for Stickle Road is far from over.