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Council to investigate constructing sidewalk on Faulkner St.

November 13, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Baker

A former Orangeville councillor is calling on the Town to bolster pedestrian safety and construct a new sidewalk in a busy residential subdivision.

Sylvia Bradley has lived in her century-old home on Faulkner St. for more than 20 years. While she loves the area, she has long recognized a key problem on her busy street – there is no sidewalk. Now, she’s hoping to have that long-term issue rectified. 

“This area is heavily used by residents of all ages – young children, the elderly, parents with strollers, teens and families en route to destinations such as ODSS, Princess Elizabeth Public School, the Jean Hamlyn Day Care Centre and Tony Rose Arena,” Ms. Bradley stated. “Especially now during (the) COVID-19 (pandemic), pedestrian traffic has hugely increased. The curve in the road, along with parked vehicles during the school year increases the risk and danger to pedestrians. Children are forced to dart in and out of traffic from one side of the street to the other to avoid being hit.”

She added, “It is just a matter of time before some poor person falls victim to this lack of a basic transportation requirement, that being a sidewalk.”

Ms. Bradley presented a petition to Orangeville Council on Monday (Nov. 9), containing the signatures of 100 residents who supported her proposal. She asked that the municipality consider including money in its 2021 budget to pay for the installation of a sidewalk in the area. 

Coun. Grant Peters, while saying he would be willing to support Ms. Bradley’s request, admitted it could be quite difficult for the Town to start retrofitting sidewalks on roadways that weren’t originally designed to include them. He also worried about the pushback the municipality may experience from homeowners in the area. 

Piggybacking off of Coun. Peters concerns, Doug Jones, the Town’s General Manager of Infrastructure Services, expressed his thoughts on the proposal. He acknowledged that, at present, there are no plans within the Town’s 10-year capital forecast to install a sidewalk in this location, but there is a reason for that. 

There is a sidewalk policy in Orangeville, Mr. Jones explains, that states there should be a sidewalk on at least one side of all local roads, and both sides of all collector and arterial roads. He noted there are many roads in town that don’t presently have a sidewalk, that particular area of Faulkner St., which turns into Sunset Drive, included. The Town’s policy dictates that sidewalks for those roads will be planned when the roads are up for reconstruction. 

With this particular request, Ms. Bradley is simply calling for a sidewalk to be installed around the S-bend on Faulkner, connecting to a walkway in front of Orangeville District Secondary School. This is where the Town may run into issues, Mr. Jones says.

“Typically, when you build a sidewalk, it’s going to a particular destination. Typically, it ties into another sidewalk, or walkway of some sort. We wouldn’t construct a sidewalk around that curve and then just stop it. It would need to have a location to go to. We would have to look at what our options there are, how far we could potentially extend a sidewalk, and how far into the subdivision we would go. The longer the sidewalk, the higher the cost,” Mr. Jones said. 

He was unable to make an estimate regarding the cost of constructing a longer sidewalk in the area, although suggested that following through with Mr. Bradley’s request to construct only along the S-bend would cost in the region of $50,000. 

Having lived in the area himself for many years, on nearby Fead St., Mayor Sandy Brown indicated he didn’t believe there was a risk to pedestrians. Knowing this issue was coming up on Monday, Mayor Brown said he reached out to Pat Hamilton, Principal at ODSS, who informed him he has not heard any complaints from parents, teachers or students regarding safety.

“There’s quite a bit of congestion during pre and post school times, but I would like to see statistics about safety and accidents,” Mayor Brown said. “ODSS was built in 1948, Ms. Bradley’s home has been there for well over 100 years and the subdivision, serviced by Sunset Drive, has had no increase or redevelopment. I’m wondering why this issue hasn’t come up before in the last 70 years.”

Ms. Bradley reiterated “this has been a problem forever”, in response to Mayor Brown, while Coun. Peters admitted he too had heard of issues in the area from other residents. 

“I know a few parents from that neighbourhood who drive their kids to school because they don’t want their kids walking along Sunset Drive and Northgate Drive,” Coun. Peters said. “There may not be an issue simply because pedestrians are not given chance to use that section of road. Getting past that S-curve would alleviate lot of safety concerns for pedestrians. I do think it would help.”

Orangeville Council voted 6 to 1 in favour of directing staff to investigate the issue with a view to including money it the 2021 budget to construct a sidewalk in the area. Mayor Brown was the sole opposing vote. 


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