Plans to build lake-to-lake bike lane in Penticton, B.C., met with criticism

Mariana Wolff owns a boutique cannabis store in downtown Penticton, B.C. The century-old cottage that houses the business has been a major attraction for local residents and tourists alike.

But Wolfffears a proposed bike lane running through the southern Okanagan citywill replace all the road parking spaces near her shop on Martin Street and turn her driving customers away.

"We would lose 90 stalls of parking along the west side of Martin," Wolff said. "They [customers] would possibly turn to other locations where there are parking lots."

She and other downtown retailers petitioned against the six-kilometre bicycle route between Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake an $8-million dollar project that was passed bycity council on Tuesday with a 5-1 vote.

In 2012, the City of Penticton identified the needto build a lake-to-lake cycling pathseparated from vehicle trafficwith barriers, cones or curbs. It stated in its official community plan last year that the project will help support an active and affordable mode of transportation.

The municipality launched a website to inform people of the bike route design and collect their opinions.

But Wolff says many local residents were not aware of the city's attempts to gather their input.

"Maybe just an online approach like that isn't necessarily the only way to try and get people's opinions," she said. "They might see a bunch of emails comingend[ing] up in the junk folder."

Coun. Katie Robinson says she's "100 per cent in favour" of the bicycle lane, citing "some overwhelming support" in town.

She says she's aware of downtown merchants' concerns and hopes they'll eventually accept the project.

"There's not a bike path in the world that didn't start off with some kind of controversy, but then proved themselves very shortly to be the jewel in the crown that's been enjoyed by locals and tourists alike for years," Robinson said to Chris Walker, host of CBC's Daybreak South.

One of the bike lane controversies Robinson might be referring tois Vancouver'sBurrard Bridge bike lanes.

Before the bike lanes werebuilt in July2009, theymet harsh criticism from some leaders and community members who said the plan would result in trafficgridlock.

Now, the city of Vancouver says the Burrard Bridge bike lane is the busiest of its kind in North America.

Robinsonsays it may take several years to build the Penticton bike route, and city staff will first launch adetailed planning phase to address concerns from downtown businesses.

"We still have a lot of room to be able to tweak the route, maybe move it from one side of the road to the other side of the road so that there's less interference with businesses."

There's no timeline yet for the start of theplanning stage.