A north Okanagan man says living right on the edge of Vernon city limits has left him with only half a road in front of his house. One side of the street is paved and the other side is still gravel and grass.
David Gardiner would like to see work done to maintain the gravel portion as a road.
However, the province argues the gravel area is not really part of the road. The Ministry of Transportation contends that once the city’s part of the road was paved, the gravel part became unnecessary. It refers to the gravel area as an “un-maintained right of way” rather than a road.
The street in question is Shantz Road. The pavement portion of the street is the city’s jurisdiction, while the grass and gravel area is the province’s responsibility.
Gardiner, who is building a house on the south side of Shantz Road, argues that drivers are using the pavement side of the street to travel in both directions.
“When I leave my house or come to my house, I don’t want to drive down the wrong side of the road,” Gardiner said.
“It would be nice just to see it maintained. I would be happy with that, but I think to get people to drive down it as two lanes it is probably going to have to be paved.”
However, instead of paving it, the province has installed no parking signs in the gravel area. The Ministry of Transportation said it instituted the parking ban on the gravel side after a local worried that people parking there was unsafe.
The no parking signs have upset the residents of a housing complex across the street from Gardiner. The no parking signs on the gravel area have pushed some to park on the narrow paved section.
“Because there is no parking on the gravel side, we are supposed to park on the city side which is the only paved portion. To me that doesn’t make sense,” said Monica McDonald, president of the complex’s strata.
McDonald doesn’t think more paving is necessary.
“When I look at the city there are far more important projects that could be done before something like this because it is not that well used,” McDonald said.
This City of Vernon directed most questions about this issue to the province.
The Ministry of Transportation said the road doesn’t see many cars and has seen no collisions so it is a low priority for upgrades.
“The ministry carefully weighs the benefits of all transportation projects in the province to ensure that we focus on areas where traffic volumes support the investment and ensure the best use of taxpayer dollars,” wrote a ministry spokesperson in a written statement.
The province has promised to keep tabs on the situation look at upgrades “if necessary.” Vernon says it will watch the parking situation to see if more parking rules are warranted.
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