The Town of Smithers is looking at redesigning the Princess Street Roadway from about Princess Crescent to Fifteenth Avenue.
This was discussed at Tuesday night’s (September 10th) council meeting with a presentation from WSP.
The replacement is being done due to current infrastructure issues with the street.
Three design options are being considered to replace the current two lanes with boulevard and sidewalk design.
The first design being considered would add bike lanes to either side of the roadway while keeping the sidewalk, like King Street near Muheim Elementary.
The second would replace the sidewalk with a multi-use pathway along with extending one side of the street with a parking lane.
The third option would be to only replace the sidewalk with a multi-use pathway.
During discussions, Councilors Sam Raven and Laura Leonard were both in favour of the second design.
“I used to take my kids to Princess Park quite a bit and I live out of town so would have to park beside the park,” said Raven.
“It does favour some parking and separates the pedestrians,” said Leonard.
Princess Street is part of the town’s Active Transportation Plan which is meant to increase that infrastructure through the community.
Though it’s in the plan zone, Councilor Frank Wray wondered if this type of upgrade could be standardized.
“Are we going to modify the entire town standards to always have bike lanes on everything that’s built?” he asked.
He added it would be the right course to save time while planning upgrades for other streets if they are to be introduced everywhere.
While there are design options available, council noted changes to each can be made.
Council passed the project that evening with community engagement about the redesign now in the planning phase.
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