At the Monday, August 20, 2018 Council meeting, Courtenay City Council passed a motion that removes a proposed 21^st Street river crossing from consideration in the draft Connecting Courtenay Transportation Master Plan that is currently under development.

As part of two phased public engagement process over the past six months, over 1,000 Courtenay residents provided feedback on what they would like to see for transportation infrastructure in Courtenay, and then most recently citizens were consulted on several draft recommendations proposed by the transportation engineering consultants. 

A new river crossing at 21^st Street was one was one of several long-term recommendations proposed in response to current and future transportation modelling, which indicates that downtown bridges and some major routes are over-capacity at peak times and congestion will increase in future years without additional capacity. The need for an additional crossing solicited varying opinions from many citizens during the consultation process undertaken this year.

Ongoing consultation will continue over the coming months with K’ómoks First Nation, community stakeholder groups, and other public and private sector agencies, as part of the engagement process directed by Council.

The draft Connecting Courtenay Transportation Master Plan is expected to be presented to Council later this year.