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The debate over sidewalks in Manor Park is about to flare up again, as city staff recommend going ahead with a project that has divided the neighbourhood.
The plan to put sidewalks on four streets just west of St. Laurent Boulevard met opposition when it first came up last summer, prompting city staff to defer it.
But that reprieve is now over, as a staff report coming to council’s public works and infrastructure committee on March 30 promises to rekindle the fight.
Natalie Belovic, a local realtor who is president of the Manor Park Community Association, said neighbours are planning to show up at the meeting to argue against the plan.
She said the sidewalks will pave over soil that supports mature trees. Besides, in her view, sidewalks aren’t needed on the quiet residential streets, which have little traffic.
“The streets are safe as they are,” said Belovic, who specified that the community association does not have an official position and she’s speaking as a nearby resident.
“Why solve a problem that we don’t have?”
The opposition is not universal. Eugenie Waters, a family physician who lives just a few blocks away, said sidewalks are crucial for accessibility.
“For people who have certain disabilities for which having a sidewalk is essential for them to safely move about their neighborhood, if that sidewalk is not present, that person may end up spending the entire winter indoors,” she said.
Eugenie Waters, a family physician who lives in Manor Park, says the sidewalks are crucial for accessibility. (Jacob Taillefer Racine/CBC)Staff say doing work now will save money
The sidewalks are planned to run along one side of sections of Arundel Avenue, Kilbarry Crescent, Braemar Street and Jeffery Avenue.
City staff say now is the perfect time to do the work, since they can combine it with planned road, water and sewer replacements at a cost of $180,000, instead of more than $500,000 for a standalone sidewalk project.
Staff first brought the plan forward in June of last year, but they needed the consent of the area’s councillor, Rawlson King, to move forward without council approval.
Instead, King got the plan deferred until September, and then again until this year.
But city staff say waiting much longer will make it impossible to do the work in tandem with the other roadwork, so they’re looking for council’s permission to go ahead now, with or without King’s permission.
The staff report says the sidewalks will make the neighbourhood more accessible and help build a connected pedestrian network.
Belovic doesn’t buy that argument. She said most of the sidewalks will end abruptly, and the city should instead build sidewalks on busier streets or by a nearby school.
“If they’re just using this as a way to tick a safety and security and accessibility box off of their to-do list by saying, ‘oh we’ve done sidewalks,’ they’re not doing the sidewalks where they’re really needed, and where we’re advocating for them,” she said. “So that’s frustrating.”
A section of Arundel Avenue that is slated to get sidewalks if council approves the recommendation from city staff. (Jacob Taillefer Racine/CBC)
Waters said the streets in the city plan connect to transit routes. Besides, she said, the city has to plan for the future and build its sidewalk network one step at a time.
‘A concerning precedent’
The city has a policy to add sidewalks to all local streets as opportunities arise. Waters worries that giving in to oppostion on the Manor Park sidewalks would encourage other neighbourhoods to seek carve-outs of their own.
“It can set a concerning precedent if a particular neighborhood gets to exclude itself from really important citywide policies,” she said.
But Belovic said the policy shouldn’t be a one-size fits all. In her view, there’s already a double standard, since she’s watched new suburbs pop up without sidewalks on quiet local streets.
“If it’s about safety and accessibility, why doesn’t every single brand-new built street in the suburbs have a sidewalk? They don’t,” she said. “So why all of a sudden does everyone here have to have a sidewalk? It makes no sense.”
King said he is reviewing the latest staff report recommending the sidewalks and is considering bringing a motion on the matter.