Saanich is a district of the Greater Victoria Area, located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. A blog post profiles the case study of Cook Street’s Complete Street renovation.
Saanich
The Uptown-Douglas (UD) Corridor Plan was completed in July 2020 and “provides a 20 to 30 year vision with objectives and actions to implement the goals and policies of the Official Community Plan.”
Section 7 – Significant Streets “provides objectives and policies in the UD to enable the transition of significant streets to complete streets. Future mobility and urban design concepts are provided for eight critical streets in the UD area ” (p.6). The need for complete streets is also mentioned in sections on transportation and mobility as a way to enhance the use of the existing transit infrastructure within Saanich (p.87).
The plan also includes case study the initiatives to transform Blanshard Street and Vernon Avenue into Complete Streets complete with preliminary policy directions and conceptual cross section designs.
The District of Saanich released their Moving Saanich Forward: Active Transportation Plan in June 2018. The Active Transportation Plan aims to build on the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan.
The Active Transportation Plan states that one of the goals* in the 2015-2018 Strategic plan is to: ‘design and construct “Complete Streets” (p.13).’ The Active Transportation Plan provides details on achieving this goal.
*We were unable to find this goal in the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan.
Construction for the first street in the District of Saanich (BC) to undergo redesign under Complete Streets was completed and opened to the public in May 2015.
Nine hundred meters of Cook Street has been upgraded to “reduce GHG emissions, improve stormwater quality, increase safety for all communters and provide an inviting environment for residents,” according to Saanich’s recent news release. Construction for this 5.6 million dollar project began in August 2014 as a project under the neighborhood’s Quadra Local Area Plan. Cook Street’s renovations reflect this community plan’s vision to create vibrant, inclusive, and safe neighbourhoods for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists in the area.
Specifically, Cook Street’s upgrades consist of: new asphalt on the roadway, 1.8 kilometers of new and refurbished sidewalks and cyclist lanes, new underground municipal utilities, traffic safety improvements, and 45 new trees planted alongside the road.
Cook St is the first of three projects in Saanich, which together form the Complete Streets Concept Design Project, launched in 2012. Glanford Ave (see project documents) and Tillicum Road between Carey Road and the Trans Canada Highway (completed 2015, see project documents) make up the other two.
Read the full news release for Cook St, or the project documents.
