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Council rejects bid to halt Bythia Street widening

August 24, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Pickford

A local resident has failed in his attempts to convince Orangeville Council not to widen Bythia Street during a current road reconstruction project.

Council committed $524,000 to completely redevelop parks of Bythia last November during its capital budget deliberations. On Monday night Henry Vandendam told council he had started a petition, which he said has been signed by numerous local residents who were apparently surprised by the news that the street would be marginally widened during its reconstruction.

“I am here tonight representing the residents of Bythia. I have a petition here signed by everyone that I could find. We ask that Public Works keep in line with the original intent of the motion passed in December, 2016 that staff be instructed to keep the width of the road to a maximum of 6.6 metres,” Mr. Vandendam said.

Currently, the area in question has an asphalt width of 6.2 metres, while curb-to-curb it sits at 6.52 metres. The original design for the project called for an asphalt width of 6.5 metres and overall curb-to-curb width of 7.5 metres.

In November, Town Council sided with several York Street residents who opposed a similar widening  during that particular $1.2 million redevelopment. After some deliberation, Council agreed not to widen the street. As such, when a similar request came in from Bythia Street residents, the Town once again complied.

And so when he was asked by council why staff hadn’t followed a specific instruction, Orangeville’s Director of Public Works, Doug Jones, stated that there was some confusion over what Bythia Street residents want and what Council agreed to in December.

“When this motion was passed back in December, our intent was to return to a design consistent with the current width of the road. We believe we have done that,” Mr. Jones said. “I have always believed that road width is defined by the width of asphalt. We have looked at the current design and feel what we have is consistent with council’s motion. We’re here tonight to see if council agrees with Mr. Vandendam, or if the design is indeed consistent.”

The compromised design calls for six metres of asphalt width, with curbs taking the overall width to seven metres. That plan would see the actual road tighten up by 20 centimetres, but curb to curb, it would be approximately 50 centimetres wider.

“We’re asking that Bythia Street be brought down to 6.2 metres face of curb to face of curb. We have genuine concerns here,” Mr. Vandendam said.

Mr. Jones noted that the Town’s standardized road width across the municipality is eight metres of asphalt plus curb space. “That’s what we design local roads to when we’re building new subdivisions,” Mr. Jones said. He said staff would have pushed to have Bythia widened to meet those standards had they not been otherwise directed by Council.

In addressing Mr. Vandendam’s request to see Bythia reduced to an overall width of 6.2 metres, Mr. Jones simply stated Bythia would not be a functional road if they agreed to those demands. He in turn asked council how they wished to proceed.

“In my experience, councillors make poor engineers,” Coun. Scott Wilson said. “I believe (Staff) has done an effective job with this project.” Coun. Wilson did point out, however, that it was important to him that Bythia Street residents be treated similarly to York Street residents.

Seemingly at a standstill, Council voted in favour of continuing with the compromised design put forth, which will see Bythia redeveloped with an asphalt width of six metres and overall curb-to-curb width of seven metres.

“I guess we’re going to carry on with how it is,” Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock concluded.

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