$2.15M Price Tag Halts Plan to Rename Parksville Highway Sections

Noah Chen

6/17/20262 min read

A proposal to rename sections of two highways running through downtown Parksville, B.C., has stalled after a city report estimated the change would create a collective cost of about $2.15 million.

The proposal involved renaming portions of Highway 19A and Highway 4A as part of a broader traffic-calming initiative intended to make the city’s downtown more walkable and accessible.

However, councillors declined to move forward after learning how many residents, businesses and public organizations would be affected.

Mayor Disappointed by Decision

Parksville Mayor Doug O’Brien said he was disappointed the proposal did not advance.

He said the staff report focused heavily on the reasons not to rename the roads without giving enough attention to the possible benefits.

O’Brien argued that changing the road names could help shift drivers’ perception of the routes and encourage through-traffic to use the Inland Highway instead of travelling through downtown Parksville.

“I feel that it’s important that we should actually slow down and look at what we have and turn Parksville into the destination instead of the drive-through,” O’Brien told Peazzi.

The idea emerged during consultations conducted as part of the city’s transportation planning process.

A previous council committee had suggested renaming Highway 19A Ocean Boulevard and Highway 4A Mountainview Boulevard.

Hundreds of Addresses Would Be Affected

The city’s staff report found that the proposed changes would affect 674 addresses, including 393 businesses and 281 residential properties.

Community facilities, parks, government organizations and health agencies such as Island Health could also have been required to update their records.

The report said residents, property owners and tenants could need to contact approximately 40 organizations to change their addresses.

Those updates could include banking information, insurance documents, government identification, utility accounts, business materials and mail-forwarding arrangements.

Emergency services would also need to revise their address databases.

City Faced Significant Administrative Work

The report found the change would create extensive work for the City of Parksville.

Additional staff could be needed to answer questions from the public, while operations crews would have to replace roadway signs.

The city would also need to update more than 1,000 bylaws, policies, leases and agreements containing the existing road names.

Coun. Amit Gaur said the report showed the proposal would create a major administrative, logistical and financial burden for businesses, property owners and the city.

Coun. Joel Grenz said the idea had been worth investigating, but concluded that its potential benefits would not justify the costs.

No councillors spoke in favour of proceeding after reviewing the report.

Businesses Opposed Proposed Change

The Parksville Downtown Business Association had previously spoken against the renaming proposal.

Executive director Theresa Cooper said a survey of association members showed little support because many businesses were already under financial pressure and would have to pay to replace signs, cards and other materials.

Coun. Sylvia Martin, the association’s council liaison, said opposition among members was nearly unanimous.

She said the city should instead focus on other priorities, including controlling taxes for residents dealing with the rising cost of living.

With councillors unwilling to support the expense and logistical burden, the proposed highway name changes are no longer moving forward.

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