If a developer builds a sidewalk should council commit to connecting it to a major road?
Randy Bye of H. Bye Construction appeared before Wellington North council on June 6 to raise that question.
“Council now wants to developers to put in internal sidewalks in new developments,” said Bye, adding he wanted to see all sidewalks on major roads finished first.
He said he was concerned about building a sidewalk in his own development that would connect to a major road where there are no sidewalks.
“There’s no commitment on your behalf whatsoever that I can see to finish any arterial sidewalks that are missing in this town,” said Bye.
“I think that you should really rethink your strategy on wanting to have internal sidewalks in these subdivisions … I really think you’re barking up the wrong tree,” he added.
“But I do think that on some of the arterial streets we have, sidewalks are important.”
Bye then questioned CAO Michael Givens, saying council hasn’t committed to connecting his sidewalks to anywhere.
“I’m not committing council to build sidewalks on Wellington Street … I want you to build sidewalks within your development,” said Givens.
“But you’re not prepared to connect them to anything?” asked Bye.
Mayor Andy Lennox said, “I don’t think anybody has said that we’re not interested in connecting sidewalks.”
But Bye said there was no commitment from council.
“We’ve had this standard in place since 2010, at least to build the sidewalks as part of our standards. It may not have been enforced,” said Lennox.
“A standard is a guideline though,” said Bye.
Lennox responded saying the standards require sidewalks from all development but the township was in the process of updating those standards.
Later in the meeting, council discussed a motion that:
– declared sidewalks important infrastructure;
– directed staff to pursue an allowance from developers in lieu of installed sidewalks (at locations where sidewalk installations is not currently possible but may be required in the future);
– directed staff to pursue sidewalks on local, collector and arterial roads within new developments and during road construction and reconstruction projects; and
– proposed that a developer can send written comments detailing the reasons sidewalks are ill advised during their development proposal.
Bye said, “If you folks decide to take money from the developer and not keep the commitment yourself to connect the sidewalks, well then I can’t sell those sidewalks to anybody.
“In effect, what you’ve did is you collected a development charge from the developer for sidewalks and streets and never used it.”
He added, “On top of that you’ve asked me for a donation towards these sidewalks which you’re not going to commit to connect a link with. That to me, that’s not wrong, that’s a blasphemy.”
Councillor Steve McCabe said he agrees that sidewalks are important.
“Contrary to what Randy is saying, I think it is important to have sidewalks there … I do agree that it’s got to be hooked up to something but having them in place now is key so that we are building towards the future,” said McCabe.
Bye interrupted, “You want me to make a commitment, but you’re not prepared to make a commitment,” he added.
Lennox then interjected.
“Stop there Randy, there is a discussion here that has not yet occurred … first is what do we want our community to look like?
“The second part is if it includes sidewalks, then we have a lot of streets that don’t have sidewalks and we’re going to have to embark on a plan on how we’re going to do that,” said Lennox.
“It may not be the way you want us to get there, but we have to make the decisions that we believe are in the public interest to get us there … this affects more than your development, this affects the community as a whole.”
Councillor Lisa Hern suggested council delay the decision until after council sees the results of the township’s developers’ forum held earlier this year.
Council agreed and voted to defer the motion.
