Council here has given approval in principle to a Wellington County-wide plan for a $24 million trail system that calls for over $1.25 million in trail upgrades in Mapleton.
Wellington County planner Sarah Wilhelm told council the local contribution is projected to come in at $77,800 over 20 years, with the county picking up the lions share at $1,173,440.
Wilhem said much of the work to be done in Mapleton would be on county roads and funded 100 per cent by the county.
“That really benefits the Township of Mapleton more than most municipalities,” she explained.
By contrast, the estimated price tag for local contributions in Wellington North and Centre Wellington are expected to be around $3 million each. The Town of Minto, however, is expected to provide a local contribution of only about $43,000 to the project.
Wilhelm, along with Andy Goldie, Centre Wellington CAO who chairs the Wellington County Active Transportation Plan committee and Karen Armstrong, vice-chair, of the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph In Motion committee, presented Mapleton council with an update on the plan at the Nov 13 council meeting.
The proposal calls for the creation of a 1,000-kilometre trail system throughout the county over the next 20 years. County-wide, about 30 per cent of the trails will be off-road, with the remaining 70 per cent making use of roadways and paved shoulders.
In the first 10 years of the plan, Mapleton’s contribution is estimated at $10,120 to cover the creation of about 25km of signed routes.
Mapleton currently has about 4km of major multi-use trails and paved shoulders. Over the life of the plan, that would be expanded to include about 120km of signed routes, including 3.1km marked with cycling lanes and another 21.5km of trails on paved shoulders.
Across Wellington, the current 250km of multi-use trails and paved shoulders will be expanded by an additional 750km of new trails and routes as the county creates a system of routes from Puslinch to Clifford and from Minto to Erin. There will also be connections to trail systems in surrounding counties.
‘Agressive’ budget
Noting the county is providing a large share of the funding for the trail upgrades in Mapleton, Councillor Neil Driscoll wondered where the money would come from.
“If you’re going to take $1.2 million out of the county budget to account for this plan, will there be other services that will be affected?” he asked.
“The county will deal with that in the budget,” said Goldie, adding he did not anticipate the county taking money from other programs to fund the plan.
Armstrong pointed out “some of the estimated costs that consultants have been building into the project are very, very high,” meaning the final tally for the trail system could be lower. “It’s a very aggressive budget,” she added.
Driscoll also raised issues of safety with trails along Line 14 and Concession 6.
“Those are very narrow roads and we have a lot of large farm traffic. As much as I respect people walking, we have a lot of traffic on those roads.”
Wilhelm pointed out that, “cyclists are legally allowed to be on those roads now.”
Wilhelm said the plan is not yet “carved in stone” and adjustments can be made to route locations “if local conditions aren’t appropriate.
