The Blue Mountains council may be about to reverse course on a major infrastructure project in Thornbury.
At its committee of the whole meeting on Sept. 17, Coun. Paula Hope announced she would be bringing a motion of reconsideration for council’s decision on a course of action for the Bay Street East reconstruction project. The motion will be on the agenda for council’s meeting on Sept. 30.
Hope made the move after council, once again, heard from multiple local residents opposed to the town’s plan to reconstruct Bay Street from Mill Street to Grey Street as part of a major project to install a new sewage system forcemain and upgrade other underground infrastructure in the area.
Although the Bay Street project did not appear as an item on the agenda for the meeting, there were multiple presentations from local residents decrying the town’s plans and requesting the town consider alternative routes for the project other than Bay Street.
In July, council, after hours of discussion, voted in favour of directing staff to proceed to 30 per cent design completion for a one-way street for the project, with the design to include option with and without sidewalks and trails.
At the Sept. 17 meeting, council received five delegations on the issue and also heard from several more residents during public comments. Opponents of the Bay Street plan say the project will fundamentally alter the quiet nature of the street and will cause the elimination of numerous trees. A petition opposing the project has garnered close to 2,000 signatures and “stop the chop” signs put up in protest of the plan have appeared on lawns all over Thornbury.
As part of his presentation, local resident Ted Squires included a suggested resolution for council to have staff report back on alternate routes for the project that would see the forcemain located under the Georgian Trail.
After the delegations and comments from the public were complete, Hope said she would move the resolution from Squires onto the agenda for council’s consideration.
“Clearly the community is not feeling heard,” Hope said.
Hope’s comments led Coun. Shawn McKinlay to raise a point of order, as he suggested that Hope’s intention to introduce the resolution to consider alternate routes should be done at the notice of motion section of the agenda later in the meeting. McKinlay also sought clarification from town staff if the motion proposed in the presentation by Squires would constitute a reconsideration.
CAO Shawn Everitt said a resolution to alter the Bay Street plan would be a reconsideration. He said staff had received direction from council on the matter.
“Staff has proceeded with that as directed by council. Money has been spent,” said Everitt.
A reconsideration motion would require the support of two-thirds of council to proceed.
Later in the meeting, Hope announced three notices of motion for the Sept. 30 meeting. One would be a resolution to reconsider the Bay Street project. The second would be to consider the motion suggested by Squires. While the third would be regarding the town’s engineering standards.
