District of Clearwater's road cross-section bylaw has gotten a favorable review by Plan H, a program supported by BC Healthy Communities Society and Healthy Families BC.
A recent article on the program's website highlighted the bylaw recently adopted by the District.
The article describes Clearwater as a rural community of about 2,400 people that was confronted by a major obstacle: a main highway running through the middle of it that divided the community into three distinct areas.
Key partners in the road networking plan put together with the help of Opus International included no just the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure plus developers with property along Highway 5, but also Interior Health and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
A road network rationalization study involved five steps: classification of the existing road networks, development of future road network options, choosing one of three preferred road network options, reviewing the preferred road network plan with property owners, and a mobile public open house.
The mobile public open house involved five stations in the community that participants walked, biked or drove to.
The article quotes District of Clearwater chief administrative office Leslie Groulx as saying, “What I thought was really awesome about the process was that the people who didn’t come out to participate in the mobile tour came out of their homes at the mobile station [just] to find out what was going on and [started] asking 'Hey, what is this all about?'"
After the road rationalization study was complete, the next step was to develop and implement a road cross-section bylaw.
A guideline was developed to show how a roadway might include several different transportation modes, such as walking or biking, as well as driving.
Town council adopted the bylaw in December, 2013.
Key outcomes and impacts include the District of Clearwater being presented with UBCM’s community excellence award in the category of partnerships last September.
The District has created a trails task force to investigate connectivity and recreation trails in the community.
Also, BuyLow Foods has embraced and implemented the specification for a multi-use pathway and road standard as part of its new shopping mall development.