Friday, August 7, 2009

It's Official... "City says it will move ahead anyway.."

Despite a formal appeal being launched by nearby business owners the City intends to move ahead with construction of the "roundabout" even though an official appeal has been launched... seems pretty risky to me but awe what the heck it's only taxpayer's money if they get ordered to reinstate the work... I think the business group have legitimate grounds here to win the appeal as the City appears not to have followed their own "bylaws"... what about a traffic study and an impact study... again I'm not saying no to a "roundabout" but why at this location when a simple modification to the corner might just as well solve any traffic issues that are there now... why not spend the money on University Ave and improve the flow in and out of our City core... surely the Mayor will show some leadership here and try to seek a resolution to this situation before it costs taxpayers more "silly" money...
Businesses appeal roundabout plan
Friday, August 7, 2009
CBC News
A group of business owners has filed an appeal to try to stop Charlottetown's first roundabout from being built.
Six businesses near Allen Street and Mount Edward Road say they want a regular intersection, and they're asking the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to quash the city's decision to put in a roundabout.
Paul Gaudet, owner of City Collision Services, told CBC News Thursday he signed on for the appeal because the city did not consult business owners and the public before deciding on a roundabout.
"When we met with the city council, the decision was already made," said Gaudet.
It's one of the busiest intersections in the city, with a Tim Hortons on one corner and a big car dealership on the other. Council voted in June to build the roundabout to deal with traffic congestion, accepting an engineer's computer-model study that showed the roundabout was the best choice.
Congestion will get worse, businesses predict
Gaudet said city council won't show the business owners the computer-model study, and they're not convinced a roundabout is the best solution.
Gaudet and others say a roundabout would make traffic more congested, and therefore make it harder for customers to drive into their shops.
"We didn't have a business impact study," said Gaudet.
"Now I know it's not necessary to have a business impact study, but in this case with so many businesses bordering right on the property, it should have been done."
Gaudet wants the city to return to its initial plan of adding an extra turning lane at the intersection.
Despite the appeal to IRAC, an official with the city says it will move ahead with the roundabout. The project will go up for tender at the end of the month.
IRAC has not set a date for making a ruling on the appeal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’m with you Tim!! Not only with the way the City is handling the roundabout, but the general way the city is managed. Time to “clean house”.

I was driving in town last night and wondered, the City was in a HUGE panic to get some curbs completed on North River Road before the Canada Games, but shouldn’t they have been more concerned with completing the repaving of Brighton Road and Queen Street as they have been graded for a couple weeks? Who manages this place?

(I’m still trying to figure out what happened with the white lines indicating the lanes at the corner or Rte 1 and North River Road, I get dizzy every time I look at them.)

Unknown said...

With respect to the proposed roundabout on Mt. Edward Road, I submit that a much less expensive solution would be to move the coffee shop to a less-traffic-intrusive location.

Coffee addicts will go out of their way to the new location, leaving no-one the poorer and traffic flow improved.