Results of April 29th, 2024 Council Meeting

[burd...@shaw.ca]

Dear Neighbours:

1.  Agenda Item E-4 - Childcare at Topham Park, among other locations:
   

Those who are interested in the discussion may find it at approximately hour 1 hr 7 minutes of the video of the meeting.  Aug 23 Andy Control Ad + Testimonial Reel + Disclaimers (youtube.com)

The upshot is that Topham Park will be among the first locations that the Township has designated for purpose built childcare with the assistance of the province.

    2. Agenda Item E-10 - Traffic calming in Forest Hills

The discussion on this topic may be found at approximately 1 hr and 40 minutes of the video of the meeting.

The Township will be going ahead with the traffic calming proposed by staff with a budget of around $200,000 dollars.  The two motions passed unanimously - following a motion for division.  The amendment for further public consultation was defeated. Councillor Van Popta noted that most correspondence she received was in favour of the changes, but that there was some confusion from some cyclists who thought the speed humps would be located east of 216^th street which is not the case.   

I appreciate the comments of both the Mayor and Councillor Michael Pratt.  The Mayor noted that this sort of infrastructure should have been installed much earlier because of the nearby interchange and Councillor Pratt commented that all residential neighbourhoods should have traffic calming.   

(We had asked for the Township to address our community's concerns over the increased traffic because of the interchange soon after the interchange was announced in 2016.  Some residents had even suggested cul-de-sacing  the west side of Telegraph Trail at 216^th Street because they were so concerned about the number of vehicles that would cut through Forest Hills from the interchange.   All along we have advocated for safety infrastructure to be built along with major transportation changes like the interchange. ) 

While traffic calming may or may not have prevented this particular accident, slower speeds increase the chances of less severe injuries for pedestrians and cyclists when an accident does occur.  The Vision Zero's stance is that it is inevitable that accidents will happen – we are human, and we all make mistakes.  But the planning of our roads and neighbourhoods must take this into account to minimize adverse outcomes.

Sincerely,

Christine