Residents say “no” to the placement of a truck wash at the west entrance to Youbou.
Twenty people attended the April 8 evening meeting at the Youbou Hall to hear the update coming from TimberWest. By the end, they were not ready to accept the locations in the community.
TimberWest representative Frank Limshue, director of planning and zoning for TimberWest’s real estate business, started by saying the truck wash could be up and running in four weeks if everyone agrees to placing it at Site A. Optional Site B is located across the road on park land behind the Youbou Firehall.
Sue Handel , communications manager for TimberWest Forest Corporation, and Frank Limshue made a short presentation to the group of 20 residents. Limshue explained the process they went through to find the best spot to place the truck wash at the entrance to Youbou.
Called Site A, it is a small sliver of property situated next to the paved road, 47 metres from Cowichan Lake and 150 metres from the nearest Youbou resident.
Questions came from the audience to why the proposed site two kilometres down TimberWest’s logging road was not chosen over the site that is in town. The reason given was they didn’t want the newly washed trucks to exit back on to a gravel road and possibly pick up more dirt before entering Youbou.
“This is not acceptable,” say owners of the residence nearest to the site, John and Trish Waddington.
They had many concerns about Site A ranging from proximity to the lake, property values to nearby houses and to the harm to the local frog population. Waddington finished with “We only get one chance at this, we want it to be done right.”
Dennis Martel voiced his concern about the wetness of Site A and wanted to know how the dirty water from that location would be kept from leaking into the lake.
TimberWest still feels this Site A is a better location than their optional Site B. That location is also not favoured by the residents. It could be back to the drawing board to choose another site to build the truck wash.
The meeting and discussions went on for almost an hour holding up the CVRD Parks and Recreation meeting that followed.
“There’s been no decision,” said Pat Weaver, Area I Director on Monday. “I’m waiting to hear back from them.”