The future of street names and numbers along Old Town Road in Sicamous is still unknown as council is hesitant to ask residents to change their addresses.
At the March 15 planning and development committee meeting, a proposal to rename Old Town Road West and a portion of Solsqua-Sicamous Road to Old Town Road, and to renumber addresses to create a numerical order, was brought forward. The goal was to streamline addresses along the road to aid future development in the area.
Previously, at the March 8 council meeting, a new street naming and address bylaw was adopted to allow the assignment of a new name or number to district roads, buildings and structures.
READ MORE: Sicamous’ Old Town Road focus of proposed name/address changes
The plan was brought up again at the June 14 committee of the whole meeting, with a scheduled rollout including a letter sent to residents and a website update coming June 26, an open house and survey about proposed changes coming July 13 and an amendment bylaw ready by fall of this year.
Mayor Colleen Anderson said she is not in favour of the planned changes.
“We’re changing so many addresses, and asking several businesses, manufacturers to change their addresses… is there another solution?” Anderson asked.
An option to change the road names by adding a locator, such as Old Town Road N or NW, was suggested, and Coun. Siobhan Rich asked if residents would be compensated for the cost of changing their addresses.
District staff confirmed a small fund has been set aside to help the process and once the information goes out, they want to determine the public’s interest and listen to concerns.
Planner Sarah Martin said as the town develops, where exactly the road changes won’t be as obvious as it is now, and with future building in the area the road naming likely won’t make sense anymore.
“Consultation is important,” she stressed. “We’ve looked at other options but part of the problem is we’ve run out of numbers the way it is; consistent numbering is difficult.”
Council asked staff to exhaust all options to simplify numbering and street naming with “as little disruption as possible”.
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