The Blue Mountains (TBM) council would like to see the “pause” button pushed on a plan by Grey County to expand and upgrade County Road 19 near the Windfall development.
At its committee of the whole meeting on Jan. 31, The Blue Mountains council received a delegation from Windfall area resident Al Wisniewski, who outlined the concerns local residents have about the county’s plan to widen and upgrade County Road 19, on the edge of the Collingwood/TBM border.
Concerns about the project include: the lack of active transportation initiatives in the plan, the studies and data used to justify the project, loss of trees, and drainage.
The full presentation can be found here. Wisniewski said the community has serious concerns about plans to make County Road 19 a four-lane road that ends at a roundabout that then feeds into a two-lane road.
A total of 559 local residents have signed a petition opposing and challenging the results of the county’s environmental assessment for the project.
“We believe the community was not taken into consideration with the expansion plans for the road widening,” said Wisniewski.
Mayor Andrea Matrosovs said she shared many of the community’s concerns about the project and said it was paramount for the town, county and neighbouring communities including Simcoe County, Collingwood, Clearview and Grey Highlands to get together with the province for a much larger conversation about traffic and road needs.
“I concur about wanting to press pause on this and not make a conclusion,” said Matrosovs. “We need time to have a regional conversation. We need a chance to sit there and talk about the bigger picture.”
Matrosovs suggested that town CAO Shawn Everitt reach out to county CAO Kim Wingrove to initiate the talks about next steps.
Coun. Gail Ardiel said the project has been in the works for a number of years and attempts a few years back to have a larger discussion were not successful.
“Many years ago we asked for a regional approach. It failed,” she said. “A pause button would be good to go back to Grey County.”
Council agreed and unanimously passed a resolution asking Matrosovs, deputy mayor Peter Bordignon and town staff to approach Grey County about having a regional discussion about the matter.
