April 28, 2015
Ontario

Council fights for West Road

By John Divinski | Bayshore Broadcasting | April 27, 2015 | www.bayshorebroadcasting.ca

South Bruce Peninsula is going to formally ask Bruce County for an amendment to the county Official Plan to keep West Road a local road and therefore only 66-feet wide.

The county’s plan right now is make West Road a collector road and widen it to 100-feet.

Mayor Janice Jackson’s fear is that if the road becomes a collector road, it will lead to future wind turbine farm development in the area with a hydro corridor to deliver the power to the province.

Jackson says if West Road remains a defined local road, that could resolve the anxiety of residents about turbines being developed in the area.

Council voted 4-1 last week in favour of asking for the change to the Official Plan.

The dissenting vote came from Deputy Mayor Jay Kirkland who says he has seen nothing in writing from the county that they want to widen West Road so turbines can be built in the area.

Kirkland says besides, if the province wants to put in a hydro corridor, they can do it pretty well anywhere they please such as private lands, municipal roads and provincial roads.

The Deputy Mayor also cautions council to be careful what you wish for.

He says if the county changed West Road back to a local road, they may very well, download back onto the municipality and it could be the taxpayers that would have to pay to have much-needed improvements to the road.

Under the current situation, the county owns the road and any improvement costs would be shared by all taxpayers in Bruce County.

The county wants to widen a 29-kilometre stretch on the Peninsula’s West Shore, at a cost of 10 million dollars.

Jackson disagrees with the county’s claim that the project is needed for an increase in traffic

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/04/28/council-fights-for-west-road/