Business owners in the 1400-block of Johnston Road are angry that reconstruction of the street – long characterized by dust from excavation, ubiquitous metal fencing and one-way-only traffic – is going to drag on at least two months beyond what they were expecting.
But compounding their unhappiness with the city, they claim, is an information deficit in which they are not being adequately kept up-to-date with progress on the construction, which has been impacting their businesses and their customer base negatively since the middle of March.
In one instance a business owner found out about the current delays only after reading about them in a comment on the city's Facebook page – almost a full week after the information was originally posted.
Piya Sandhu, owner and chief curator of The Handpicked Home (1406 Johnston Rd.), who has been one of the most vocal critics of the project, said she only saw – and took a screenshot of – the posting on Sept. 5, at which time the Facebook date stamp showed it as having been up for six days.
In response to a resident question about how long the project was going to continue, the City of White Rock had responded: "The Johnston Road project started at the end of March and will take approximately 6 to 8 months to complete. The project completion ETA is approximately October – end of November and any announcements on road openings will be shared on our social media and city website." (The city has since posted an update to its website stating that the area is set to be reopened at the end of October).
Sandhu said she immediately commented on the post: "City of White Rock this project went from having a September timeline to the huge jump of Oct – end of Nov?? When were the businesses & White Rock BIA notified of this?"
Sandhu told Peace Arch News her comment elicited a phone call, shortly afterwards, from a White Rock city staff member, who told her they "had just received notice of the delays this week and an email would go out to the businesses today."
"However it is clear from the (Facebook) date stamp that notice was received, at the very least, on Aug. 29, the week before," she said.
"I haven't seen any urgency from the city on this," she added, adding that walk-in trade is vital to the success of her business, which offers a wide range of artisan and locally created gift items, including clothing, bath and body products, home decor, and kitchenware.
"(Yet) this project will determine whether my business succeeds of fails in the next few months," she said. "It's absolutely destroying us – you can't budget for this, or schedule around this.
"It is enraging to business owners that it feels as though no one from city hall gives any true importance to a project that has turned this city upside down, during one of its busiest seasons – summer – and is now going to encroach the holiday season, the only season for the retail industry to try and recoup losses from an already excruciating year," she told PAN.
Sandhu said she knows that many other business owners in the block feel as she does, although not all have been as forthcoming as she has been.
She said she has pleaded, to no avail, for compensation for businesses, tax breaks or "at the very least an elimination in fees for signage and business licences for the year."
She is also dismayed that the White Rock BIA, which she understood was to provide a liaison role between business owners and the project, has not been kept in the loop about the current delays.
Adding to frustration, and undermining confidence in the project, Sidhu said she and other business owners, as well as customers, have frequently noted days during the summer that no work was going on at the site – and she said she had mentioned this to engineering and municipal operations.
"They came back at us that 'just because you don't see work being done, it doesn't mean things are not going on in the background,'" she said.
"Businesses are up in arms about it, and rightly so," commented Coun. Ernie Klassen, himself a lower Johnston Road business owner, who voted against proceeding with the reconstruction – along with Coun. Christopher Trevelyan and Coun. David Chesney – when the $3.06 million construction contract came before council on Feb. 12.
The project was approved on that date, with Mayor Megan Knight, and councillors Bill Lawrence, Elaine Cheung and Michele Partridge voting in favour.
At that time, city engineering and municipal operations director Jim Gordon had recommended one lane of the street be kept open, and in response to questions from Chesney, said that business owners had expressed significant worries about the project.
Klassen had also argued for a "reprieve" for businesses on Johnston for a year or two (Phase 1 of Johnston's redevelopment, from North Bluff to Russell, had impacted the street for most of 2018), while Trevelyan said that while infrastructure in the lower section was aging, it was not viewed by staff as a "critical" priority.
“What I’m seeing is $3 million to redevelop one half of one block,” Trevelyan said. “…Mainly buildings from the 1950s that will eventually be redeveloped … it’s not a priority for me to spend that kind of money on a sidewalk that will get ripped up again in the future.”
The project aimed to upgrade and upsize storm and sanitary sewers as well as replace and upsize watermains, and replace sidewalks on the east side of Johnston to improve accessibility, remove tripping hazards and provide an improved northbound transit stop.
Peace Arch News reached out to the city about the current delay, and was directed to an updated posting on the city's website, on the Johnston Road Infrastructure page.
The update – which appeared Sept. 11 – states: "Johnston Road is expected to re-open in both directions by the end of October.
"The project has encountered a number of challenges related to historic construction work that was not properly reported to the City," the update adds.
"The accumulation of these challenges and recent subsurface conditions have impacted the original September 2024 completion date. The current schedule of reopening the road by the end of October is in line with original projections for a one-lane construction zone."
To improve safety around the project site, temporary crosswalk lights have been placed at the mid-block of Johnston Road between Russell Avenue and Thrift Avenue, the website states.
The city website also states that it is holding an additional "coffee chat" – monthly events intended to keep business owners informed about the project – on Sept. 18, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the White Rock Community Centre lobby.
Another "coffee chat" will be held Sept. 25 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the centre.
City communications and government relations manager Robyn Barra told Peace Arch News Monday that the city has held four coffee chats on the project so far and has changed the meeting time to 9 a.m. to be more convenient for business owners.
She added that, since the project began, the city has sent 25 emails to businesses, has posted regular updates to the Johnston Road infrastructure page, 35 social media posts, and sent emails and letters to the White Rock BIA.
A commissionaire, included in the contract with the construction company, has been on-site and communicates with all businesses regularly, she said.
These measures have been taken to "ensure a collaborative and effective approach to communication, playing a crucial role in shaping the city’s approach to the construction process," she said.
In comments received late last week, Trevelyan said that while he knows staff and construction crews are trying to complete the work as fast as possible, he feels communications with businesses about these new delays could be improved.
"I also question the recent messaging that it was always an eight month-plus project when the staff report council received explicitly stated it would only be six months," he said.
"For the sake of our local businesses, it's imperative that parking and two way traffic is restored before the start of the holiday shopping season."
