Residents concerned about increased traffic and safety in their neighbourhood

By Casandra Turnbull

More than 100 concerned residents living in the Highland and Nith Peninsula subdivisions in Paris are protesting the County of Brant’s changes to Dundas Street, citing they will significantly increase traffic and safety concerns in their neighbourhood.

The group of approximately 123 residents, led by Martin McCaffrey and Ian Robertson, believe there will be severe implications if the county proceeds with plans to route a majority of traffic coming from Lion’s Park and the new 540-unit Losani subdivision through their residential neighbourhood - down Dundas Street West to new traffic lights going in at King Edward Street.

These changes were prompted by what will be a significant increase in traffic as Losani homes begins construction on a new residential neighbourhood on Barker’s Bush. Losani was required to complete a Traffic Impact Study (TIS) detailing how the additional traffic generated from the new development would impact the existing streets and intersections in the area. Brant County staff worked with a traffic consultant to review viable solutions As a result, RPT-0289-23 was presented in July and passed by

The red arrow shows where the entrance to the new Losani subdivision will be and the red boxes show the current all-way stop intersection. Once the roundabout is built at the entrance of the new subdivision, the county plans to remove the all-way stop. Area residents feel this is dangerous to pedestrians who need to cross the road and because the exit from Zavarella Court has poor sightlines council a few months ago Highlights from the RPT stipulate the developer must construct a roundabout on Dundas Street at the entrance to the subdivision by spring 2024. Once it’s in place, the county will remove the all-way stop at Zavarella Court. Traffic signals will be installed at the west intersection of Dundas St W and King Edward St and a ‘porkchop’ curb will go in on the easterly end of Dundas Street and King Edward Street. This will enforce traffic to make right turn outs only from Dundas, which also means all traffic leaving Lions Park can only turn right onto King Edward Street East. To head west towards downtown, motorists will detour down Dundas Street West, through the roundabout and hit the new lights at the end of Dundas Street West to make a left-hand turn. Both McCaffrey and Robertson presented the group’s concerns, along with a well supported petition, during a delegation at the Tuesday, Nov. 28th council meeting.

“While we understand the necessity of addressing traffic concerns, we are deeply concerned about the potential removal of a stop sign, and road design issues,” said Robertson in an email to the Paris Independent a few days before the council meeting.

Continued on page 7

The petition focuses on the removal of the stop sign at Zavarella Court, the reclassification of Dundas Street as a collector road and the safety implications of those changes.

Robertson and McCaffrey brought the petition to council and asked that they conduct a thorough review of the additional options presented during the Traffic Study – such as traffic lights at the easterly and westerly portion of Dundas / King Edward, creating a road through a portion of the cemetery grounds, keeping the all-way stop in place, and exploring traffic calming measures. Removing the all-way stop sign, they say, is unsafe for several reasons – it removes access for pedestrians to cross the road and creates a dangerous situation because of poor sightlines for both pedestrians and vehicles leaving Zavarella Court.

So concerned with the danger of removing the all-way stop, the group conducted a bit of their own research prior to the meeting and presented their findings to council They say, according to the Transportation Association of Canada and the Geometric Design Standards for Ontario Highways, decision sight distance in a 60 km/hr zone (as is the case in Collector Road designation) is 160 m at minimum, however this intersection only allows for 60 m sightlines. They feel strongly it’s an accident waiting to happen. Removing the stop signs would also take away the only measure of safety for pedestrians crossing the road, especially since there are no sidewalks on the east side of Dundas, presenting a consistent need to cross the road to walk safely down Dundas St W

The County insists the stop signs at Zavarella Crt will be too close to the new roundabout for efficient flow of traffic, and that’s why they must go. According to information on the County’s EngageBrant website, to ensure a safe, walkable community so a sidewalk on the east side of Dundas Street, from the proposed roundabout to King Edward Street, is being considered.

As traffic will undoubtedly increase in this neighbourhood, the County has also designated Dundas Street West as a Collector Road, a designation the group feels is not consistent with the definition of a collector road under the County’s Master Transportation Plan. It’s out of character for several reasons, they say, citing there’s only a sidewalk on one side of the street, the travel surface is shy of the required 10 m, and the area is not conducive to the designated 60-70 km/hr speed requirement. During the 2008 Zavarella subdivision construction, Dundas Street West was designated a Collector Road by the consultant and that language was later clarified to be a local road only Paris Councillor John Bell wondered how much time the county has to possibly investigate these neighbourhood concerns, before occupancy starts in the Losani subdivision.

Rob Walton, General Manager of Operations for the County of Brant, discussed this with Losani who indicated there wouldn’t be occupancy until the end of September 2024. That gives the county time to implement the changes they’ve outlined on EngageBrant, he said

The information presented was received as information only during Tuesday’s meeting