The sidewalk debate continued at a special meeting of Wellington North council on July 14.
Public works director Matt Aston said the township is in need of an upgrade to its municipal servicing standards, which includes sidewalks.
The current standard requires 1.5m sidewalks on both sides of residential collector and arterial streets, and on one side of residential local streets. Aston explained provincial highways and county roads were considered arterial.
However, this standard has not always been enforced.
In his presentation, Aston said sidewalks establish a safe corridor within the road allowance for pedestrian traffic but they also represent an ongoing maintenance cost.
Councillor Dan Yake raised concerns about the commitment of the township to build sidewalks.
“I’m concerned that we aren’t serious about it … maybe Wellington North isn’t serious about sidewalk installation,” he said.
“When I see a comment that says sidewalks represent ongoing maintenance costs, it leads me to believe that at some point in time we may stop maintaining sidewalks and ask people to do it themselves and it concerns me that again … I don’t think we’re serious about it.”
Yake added, “I think developers are willing to put in sidewalks … but I don’t think the township has stepped up to the plate.”
CAO Mike Givens wanted to clarify his position on the issue.
“I am an advocate for sidewalks, I think I’ve made that pretty clear,” he said. “I think they are the most appropriate, safe, accessible manner to accommodate pedestrians. I do think the township should promote sidewalks with the new development.”
Givens added service levels “are not staff decisions, they’re decisions of council.”
Yake said he believes whether or not sidewalks are installed is also a decision of council.
Mayor Andy Lennox suggested there be a conversation surrounding a sidewalk plan.
“I don’t know that we’ve had a discussion around the issues you’ve raised, whether we’re committed to sidewalks, whether we’re going to change the levels of service related to those sidewalks,” Lennox said.
He called sidewalks a “critical piece of infrastructure” and suggested the town be aggressive with implementing them.
“I’ve never had a resident come to me and say ‘can you take the sidewalk out in front of my house?’ I’ve had lots of them come to me and say ‘when can I get a sidewalk on my street?’” Lennox said.
Yake proposed the public works committee tackle the details of a sidewalk plan.
“We haven’t been that strict in regard to making developers put in sidewalks in the past, we all know that,” said Yake.
“If we are going to go down that road, then I think we need to have a plan and we need to be serious about putting them in there too.”
The update for approval will be brought to council by the end of the year after consultation with staff and the public, explained Aston.
In a delegation to council on June 6, Randy Bye of H. Bye Construction raised concerns about installing sidewalks in his development that would connect to a major road where there are no sidewalks.
Bye returned to the special meeting on July 14 to listen to the presentation.
“In fairness to me, it’s been three years. I would have never brought the sidewalk issue up if I thought it was going to be another six-month discussion,” Bye said.
“It really made no sense for us to put sidewalks in a development where we weren’t going to be connected and it was going to be a capital expense on [the township’s] behalf to bring them to us, that was what the argument was about.”
Council agreed to allow Bye to bring forward a proposal before the municipal servicing standards update.
Other changes
The municipal servicing standards update includes a change to where trees should be placed during development. It currently states trees are to be planted in front of houses within the municipal right-of-way, but the suggestion was to move them onto private property.
“I think this would kind of clear the waters as far as who owns trees in front of homes,” said Aston.
However, councillors Hern and Burke seemed to want to keep the trees where they are.
Aston also explained the municipality is now pushing to have LED streetlights instead of the current high pressure sodium lights.
Other changes include:
– updating existing standards drawings;
– updating material specifications;
– adding 22m and 26m road allowance standards;
– adding of sanitary pumping station details; and
– adding information on approval agencies.
