The head of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association says any future east-west multi-use pathway in the city, should not be built at the expense of parking stalls.

Howie Reimer suggests that a loss of parking spots won’t sit well with downtown business owners, though he feels the city should revisit plans for that east-west pathway.

“Whether its Seymour, Lansdowne, or St. Paul, Mr. Irani [City of Kamloops Transportation Manager Purvez Irani] was saying that Seymour you’re going to lose a lot more parking, and I certainly know what our downtown businesses feel about the loss of parking,” Reimer said.

“If they had gone down Lansdowne, it would have been four stalls.”

Saying he supported the pathway along Lansdowne Street, Reimer also pushed back on some claims from councillors who said they had issues about safety when they voted down the project in early December.

“Sure there are going to be some incidents but there are rules of the road, there are rules of the sidewalk and there are rules of conduct,” Reimer said.

“Personally, I did like the project but I just felt that engagement was not indicative enough and maybe there was some sort of an opportunistic was of getting this project going [in conjunction with a planned sewer replacement next year].”

While Irani told Radio NL it is too soon to say when – or if – the pathway project will go ahead, he noted it will be up to City Council to decide its future.

The proposed Lansdowne pathway was the final portion of the Kamloops North-South Active Transportation corridor, which connects Aberdeen to Westsyde. The most recent stretch of that corridor – the Sixth Avenue Bike Lane – officially opened in early October.

“There is good and bad [with the Lansdowne multi-use pathway] but it was probably a little bit rushed on this one,” Reimer said.

“I sort of agree with that but anyway its a moot point, but I do think that we need to revisit the east-west connectively of the whole active transportation network.”