North Cowichan’s council is pushing for a new access road to be constructed to the Crofton ferry terminal that would deal with traffic congestion on Chaplin Street, as had been originally proposed by BC Ferries.
Council unanimously voted for a motion made by Mayor Rob Douglas at its meeting on Oct. 16 that the municipality contact BC Ferries and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and tell them that North Cowichan doesn’t support the continued use of Chaplin Street for vehicle storage as part of the ferry terminal’s operations.
Council will also tell BC Ferries and MoTI that it will only support a plan that responds to concerns from the community related to reducing the impacts of terminal operations on local roads and access to community services, such as the boat launch and skateboard park.
BC Ferries told North Cowichan in September that the ferry company is still considering whether to rebuild the terminal’s berth on its existing location, or to just repair the current berth, and a decision would be made early in 2025.
The ferry company began the process of creating a long-term plan for the Crofton terminal in early 2019, but the planning for the redevelopment of the terminal was put on hold in 2020 due to the pandemic.
BC Ferries had developed two comprehensive options to consider for the terminal at the time, both of which intended to deal with ferry traffic on Chaplin Street and other issues, but the corporation announced in March that, due to financial constraints, the focus of the terminal project will only be on replacing its berth.
Douglas said the option that was favoured by council and the residents of Crofton was the one that involved moving the terminal north of its current location, building an entirely new access road to the terminal to provide relief for traffic on Chaplain Street, and improvements to the area surrounding the terminal.
Those improvements included the building of a pedestrian trail, community park, bus exchange, foot-passenger building, a pedestrian pier with a market area, and an expanded waterfront park.
Douglas said he thinks that the community and municipality can accept the fact that BC Ferries doesn’t have the funds to rebuild the terminal as was originally envisioned, or to make all the other improvements.
“However, in my view, it’s critical that we get that traffic off of Chaplin Street, so I would like to see BC Ferries construct a new access road,” he said. “Ideally, it would perhaps have a roundabout between York Avenue and Crofton Road with the new access road shooting off west to east from there. [BC Ferries] can make those improvements to the berth and the existing terminal as outlined, but the new access road is needed to get that traffic off Chaplin Street. That would make a huge difference for the local residents who have been struggling with that for many years.”
Coun. Bruce Findlay said he lives in Crofton and the need for a new access road to the terminal has been brought up to him by residents.
“A secondary access [to the terminal] just makes so much sense so I’m wholeheartedly supporting this motion,” he said.
