The possibility of increased traffic and emergency response times, if the Ministry of Transportation's preferred plan for the southwest bypass goes through, is unacceptable, says city council.
Ward 2 Coun. Jacques Barbeau presented a motion to express council's concerns with regard to emergency service access and response times and increased traffic in the Mikkola subdivision and on Southview Drive. The Ministry of Transportation's (MTO) plan affect Highway 17 between Municipal Road 55 and Highway 69.
The motion received unanimous support from council, and Barbeau requested staff put forward a "part two order request" in response.
A part two order request is “our final shot at getting another look at the project,” explained Barbeau.
The request calls on the Ministry of Environment to get involved and review the project to “see if all processes have been followed properly and if anything has been missed,” Barbeau said.
Councilors say they are hoping another look at the project will prompt measures to deal with the issues of emergency response times and increased traffic.
“At this point, we're certainly not happy that the issue of emergency response times (has) not been addressed,” Barbeau said. “And, although the issue of traffic in the Mikkola Subdivision has been addressed, the Ministry of Transportation believes a 33 per cent increase in traffic into that subdivision is acceptable. We don't believe it is... We believe a lot of issues have been overlooked and haven't been properly addressed.”
If this plan was put forward by city, instead of by the Ministry, it would be shot down instantly, Barbeau said.
“If an issue came to council, or came to planning (committee), from a developer and they were going to create an increase in traffic of 33 per cent, it'd get shot down in a heartbeat. So we certainly can't sit back and allow the Ministry to think that that is a reasonable amount of traffic to go through a residential area. Especially when you're looking at an area that does not have sidewalks, that is already heavily congested... with soccer fields and ball fields, it's just ridiculous, already.”
Although Barbeau says he wants the plan to go back to the drawing board, he says he is happy the Ministry has taken a look at the project to begin with.
“Hats off to the MTO and the Minister of transportation for identifying and recognizing there is a problem on that highway. I give them full marks for that, they have addressed that problem. But the issue remains that they've created three or four other problems for the community. So we need to sit down and we need to address (the issues) in a back room meeting and let cooler heads prevails.
“As it is today, it's not acceptable.”
