About a year ago, Essa Township started the process of developing a transportation and trails master plan — a top-line vision that will help inform and guide infrastructure investments, policies and strategies for the municipality's transportation network over the next 20 years and beyond.
At the time, the township held an open house at the Angus Recreation Centre and invited the public to visit and tell them what works well and what doesn’t when it comes to local roads, trails and active transportation networks.
According to Brett Sears, senior project manager for WSP, a planning and engineering firm hired by the township to help develop the plan, the feedback from the first open house helped the team refine the recommendations for new or additional transportation network improvements and afforded township residents the opportunity to share their concerns and ideas.
“From the first open house, I would suggest the most important issue we heard was about speeding and the need for traffic-calming solutions across the township,” Sears said. “We also heard concerns about parking in residential areas.”
Sears said the township’s second open house, which is scheduled for March 19 from 5-7 p.m. at the Thornton Community Centre (246 Barrie St.), will update residents on those issues and provide them with a list of items for their review and input.
“One of the big objectives of a plan like this one is to come up with a plan that looks into the future," Sears said. "What do we have to do to accommodate the future growth of the township?
“We have a list of improvements that we will share with the residents and we want to get their input,” he added.
Sears said he’s especially interested in getting residents’ feedback on the proposed expansion of the township’s trail network. He said the trail network has been extremely popular over the past few years and it’s one area that the township would like to focus on to ensure it delivers maximum value to Essa residents.
To date, the plan's project team has reviewed a variety of available data, strategic documents and policy frameworks to understand the existing conditions, challenges and other opportunities related to travel both within Essa and across municipal boundaries.
The team has also gathered input from residents and stakeholders on alternative network options, network priorities, and a vision for the future of transportation in Essa.
Recently, they developed a long-term vision for phasing and implementing the plan's preliminary recommendations.
Sears said the upcoming open house will consist of four key elements.
“We’ll provide an overview of the (plan's) study process and present our recommendations for roads, active transportation, trails and parks,” he said. “Then we’ll discuss the recommended strategies for pedestrian crossover locations, traffic-calming measures and parking.
“Finally, we’ll gather the feedback so we can finalize and complete the (plan).”
Sears said the input received from the public will be summarized and be used to inform refinements to the proposed transportation, trails and parks network.
When the plan is complete, it will be presented to council.
“Whether you walk, bike, drive, or take transit, we would like to hear your thoughts,” Sears said.
The format of the March 19 open house will be a “drop-in” style session, with no formal presentations.
For more information or to provide comments ahead of the open house, email to [email protected].
