A conceptual view of Front St. looking north at the Church St. intersection. Revamping Front St. features narrowing the road and installing bi-directional bike lanes between the Gabriola Island ferry terminal to Cliff St. (City of Nanaimo)

By Ian Holmes

Front St. Face-lift

Front St. bike lanes given final approval by Nanaimo Council

Mar 18, 2020 | 7:11 AM

NANAIMO — A major overhaul for a key road in downtown Nanaimo is officially approved.

Nanaimo council endorsed the $400,000 project to narrow Front St. and install bi-directional bicycle lanes during their Monday, March 16 meeting.

The Front St. revamp will see bike lanes placed on the water side of the road between Maffeo Sutton Park and the Gabriola Island ferry terminal. The entire Front St. corridor will narrow to two lanes of car traffic with on-street parking available on the west side of the street.

The City’s transportation manager Jamie Rose told council one car lane in each direction on Front St. is more than sufficient.

Coun. Erin Hemmens was reassured to hear losing a lane in each direction of Front St. between Cliff and Chapel streets won’t adversely impact traffic.

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“I think that affirms our decision that this is a good thing to do. We’re not interrupting traffic per se, we know our capacity is going to be what it is and we’re introducing cycling infrastructure,” Hemmens said.

Coun. Ben Geselbracht said the Front St. cycle track project is an important step in more effectively connecting the waterfront to downtown, while helping to further establish Nanaimo’s bike network.

Coun. Tyler Brown called the price tag good value for the amount of bike lanes.

“It’s in the long term plans, it starts to connect some of the existing network, I think this would be a great tragedy if this doesn’t get passed tonight,” Brown said.

Not everyone on council was as enthused.

Coun. Ian Thorope said while he appreciated extensive public consultation, he believed the cycling infrastructure will be under-used, won’t justify the expense and impede traffic.

“The reality is our city is growing tremendously quickly, we’re going to have more and more cars on our streets whether we like it or not and we have to be able to handle them,” Thorpe said.

Coun. Sheryl Armstrong also voted against the Front St. project.

Council endorsed the initiative at a finance and audit committee meeting last fall, but wanted further public engagement prior to approving the final design.

In particular, City staff worked with a design consultant analyzing the impact new bike lanes would have on the 169 unit, 18 floor Pacifica condo building.

The approved plan involves a short-term loading zone for Pacifica residents on the far side of Front St., while long duration loading directly in front of the condo building would temporarily block cyclists.

A report to council Monday night said motorists following a transit bus on Front St. may experience a small amount of additional delay, but the overall capacity of the road will not change.

Council accelerated the Front St. face-lift from 2021 to 2020.

The money for the project is from the Strategic Infrastructure Reserve fund and won’t impact property taxes.

The City’s long-term Transportation Master Plan adopted in 2014 aims to increase sustainable transportation modes, while decreasing the growth of vehicle use.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes