B.C. town’s shortsighted ‘Sidewalk to Nowhere’ is by-product of bylaws

“The end is near” – that’s what a sign posted on a new Smithers, B.C., sidewalk states.

It’s not supposed to be foreboding; the sign mocks the small town’s most famous sidewalk, built only to satisfy a bylaw requirement.

“The reason that the sidewalk is there is because of a bylaw that insists when a developer does a major development that you have to add infrastructure to the town,” said Trevor Bruintjes of North Central Plumbing and Heating, a company which recently finished updating its brick-and-mortar store.

Now a recently-paved sidewalk takes pedestrians about 30 feet until it abruptly ends. It’s been dubbed “The Sidewalk to Nowhere.”

“In Smithers, like most communities, when a business develops a property they’re responsible for bringing the front of their property to municipal standards,” said Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach.

The bylaw required North Central to build the sidewalk, located across the street and one kilometre from any other sidewalk it might one day connect to. The business owners say they even offered to donate $10,000 to $15,000 to update or maintain an existing sidewalk, but their suggestion was turned down.

“In this case there’s a very small piece of sidewalk that’s required and its sticking out there like a sore thumb. As soon as I saw it, I knew this was something that the town was going to catch flak for,” added Bachrach.

And the mayor’s assumption was correct. The sidewalk has grown infamous on social media in recent weeks as an homage to bureaucracy.

While Allan Stroet, Smithers economic development officer, says the sidewalk has brought in about $1 million of earned media attention to the community, it did make the town “look a little silly.”

Residents agree, and hope a lesson can be learned from the project. The municipality was told that it is requirements like these that discourage development and the taxes they bring.

“The sidewalk’s built, its up to code, and it is what it is: a sidewalk to nowhere,” added Bruintjes.