OSOYOOS TIMES-March 10, 2010

By Paul Everest - Osoyoos Times

The provincial Transportation Ministry has proposed a possible compromise to address the concerns of fruit stand owners who say they’ll lose business due to a planned expansion of Hwy. 97 north of Osoyoos.
The Dhaliwal family, flanked by several neighbours and supporters including Lakhvinder Jhaj, who ran for the provincial NDP in this riding during the last election, arrived at Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater’s Osoyoos office on the morning of March 6 and were presented with a new preliminary design for the planned expansion of Hwy. 97 to four lanes between Dead Man’s Lake and Graveyard Hill.
Earlier this year, the Dhaliwals, who own the Orchard Hill Estate Cidery and Fruit Market, along with the owners of the Golden Mile Fruit Market, expressed concerns that the province’s plan to build a new four-lane stretch of highway would hurt their businesses.
The original preliminary design for the expansion called for four lanes to be built next to the existing highway, with the original highway becoming a frontage road accessed from intersections at either Road 22 or 202 Avenue.
Because the fruit stands would no longer be accessible from the highway, the Dhaliwals argued that potential customers would drive by and not visit their businesses.
The new plan presented by Slater would include an access off the new highway directly between the two fruit stands.
Drivers heading north and south on Hwy. 97 would therefore be able to pull off onto the frontage road from this turnoff, but the proposed intersection at Road 22 would no longer include access to the frontage road.
Slater also said there would be signage for the fruit stands on the highway in both directions.
The proposed new design, he added, comes from recommendations he put forth to the ministry based on some of the concerns from the owners of the fruit stands.
The Dhaliwals said they don’t believe the concerns they expressed about the proposed highway, including a petition with roughly 370 names on it presented to Slater last month, had anything to do with the new plan they saw on March 6.
They feel the changes are a result of recommendations from engineers working on the project who found problems with the concept of an access onto the frontage road at Road 22.
While the family said the new design is “better than the other plan,” they feel they are facing an ultimatum, since Slater said if the new design isn’t used, the old one will be.
“We don’t have a choice,” said Pavandeep Dhaliwal, a spokeswoman for the family.
She added that what the family really wants is for the road to remain the way it is or for two new lanes to be added to the existing highway.
Slater said the ministry has taken the family’s concerns to heart.
“We have listened to them,” he said, adding that a number of other changes have been made to the expansion plan to address the concerns of the fruit stand owners including a proposed traffic pullout near the 202 Avenue intersection which will include washrooms.
He also said the ministry normally won’t agree to advertising signage along highways, but in this case, it will make an exception for the fruit stands.
Almost one acre of the Dhaliwals’ land would be needed to accommodate building the new turnout and the family would have to negotiate for compensation for the loss of this land with the ministry.
The Dhaliwals said they want a “fair market price” for the land that would be taken from them, should the planned intersection between the fruit stands be built.
The ministry is aiming to have the expansion project completed by March of 2011.
Construction of the roadway won’t affect summer traffic along the highway, Slater said, since crews will be building a new section of road away from the current highway.
The intersections, he added, will be built in the fall.
The Transportation Ministry is hosting an information session on the planned expansion on March 17 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Osoyoos Legion on 78th Avenue.
Plans for the highway expansion were first announced in November when the federal and provincial governments pledged $8 million towards the project.

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