Prior Street rally planned as council set to vote on 'arterial drama'
Credit to Author: Glenda Luymes| Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2019 00:08:44 +0000
Vancouver residents hoping to convince city council to “calm Prior street” will rally Monday, a day before council is set to choose a route for an arterial road through Strathcona.
Strathcona Residents’ Association director Penny Crawford said the goal is to hold council to promises made by previous governments to calm Prior, which became a major thoroughfare after the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts were built.
“The focus (of the rally) is on calming Prior,” she said, explaining the street is dangerous and was never designed for high traffic volumes. “I can’t stress enough that council has committed to this in the past, and it’s time for them to follow through on that commitment.”
The hour-long rally, planned for 7:30 a.m. at Prior Street and Hawks Avenue, is expected to draw wide support from the community, including business owners and community gardeners, as opposed to “just a bunch of grumpy residents,” she said.
But the rally isn’t designed to offer city council another route in place of Prior, which is exactly what civic politicos will have to consider at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The city first identified the need for a grade-separated east-west arterial in the area more than a decade ago as freight rail activity increased.
The new route is also related to the city’s work designing the street network to replace the viaducts. Construction on that project is expected to take four years, beginning in 2020. Part of the city’s False Creek Flats Plan, the vision for the area includes relocating St. Paul’s Hospital from the West End to a site beside Pacific Central train station, and increasing employment in the area from 8,000 jobs to at least 30,000.
In 2015, city council directed staff to explore alternative routes to allow Prior Street to be downgraded from an arterial to a local street. But through public engagement, “it became clear that all of the alternate arterial options presented challenges, and no one route emerged as the preferred option,” according to a June memo from city staff.
In January, the city created the Flats Arterial Community Panel, a group of 42 Vancouver residents and business participants, to deliver a recommendation on a preferred arterial route. The group endorsed a route that wasn’t initially under consideration by the city, running along National Avenue and curving up Charles Street to Clark Drive.
But the National option will cost more — up to $280 million, according to a staff report that will go before council Tuesday.
“After a thorough exploration of alternate arterial alignments to replace Prior/Venables Street, staff cannot recommend an alternate route that is both supported by the community and stakeholders impacted by the decision, and that does not place an undue fiscal burden on the city,” said the report.
Recognizing the challenges Prior residents face, the report recommended council endorse an underpass that includes an “all-ages-and-abilities route” for the Adanac Bikeway, accessible walking connections, and integration with public spaces and an “enjoyable public realm.”
The report also asked council to consider several traffic-calming measures to reduce speeds on Prior.
In a post on its website, the Strathcona Residents’ Association proposed another idea to solve the “arterial drama.”
Calm Prior and “don’t build any arterial,” said the post. “A compromise? Yes. But after talking to councillors and staff, it just might fly. Certainly worth putting out there.”
— With files by Dan Fumano
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