Despite a last-ditch plea last week from the Downtown Orillia Management Board (DOMB), city council gave the green light on Monday night to a future three-lane Front Street - between Laclie and King streets - that would incorporate streetscaping features intended to transform the road into a pedestrian-friendly gateway into the city.
A trio of councillors - Ralph Cipolla, Rob Kloostra and Sarah Valiquette-Thompson - were seeing red over the decision; they preferred a four-lane option for Front Street.
Cipolla cited an OrilliaMatters poll as evidence that many citizens are opposed to a three-lane option. "About 70 percent voted for four lanes," Cipolla said of last week's poll. "Because of what we're doing on the waterfront" and other potential developments in the area, the Ward 2 councillor said he expected traffic to get worse. "Traffic flow will be incredible."
Cipolla and Kloostra argued that if traffic patterns were less than expected, council could revisit the decision down the road and re-configure the arterial road to three lanes. "We can always change it to three lanes in the future but it's very difficult to go to four lanes (once you've built three) and very expensive."
Ian Sugden, the city's director of development services and engineering, said it would be possible to reduce the roadway to three lanes - sort of. "Anything is feasible from an engineering perspective just as long as you have enough money to do it."
He said the biggest issue would be how storm sewers would line up and how that would impact drainage if it was decided to reduce a four-lane road to three lanes. "It's commonly called a road diet when you shrink roads," he said, noting it wouldn't be easy. "But it can be done."
In the end, however, the majority of councillors voted in favour of the three-lane approach. Coun. Ted Emond said he was not concerned about traffic and believes future changes to lakeside roads and provincial highways will help, eventually, reduce traffic.
"I do believe it's important to extend our streetscaping further south along Front Street," Emond said. "I think traffic is a little like water, it flows in a way to find its own path."
He also noted that trends show a reliance on cars is diminishing. He believes "we are moving into an era where cars are getting smaller. The concept of suburbinization is past and the process of intensification is growing. To build a city based on the needs of yesterday's car philosophy is the wrong philosophy for our city going forward."
Cipolla said he didn't like that council was going against the wishes of downtown merchants. But Coun. Pat Hehn, council's appointee to the DOMB, said while merchants were in favour of four lanes, they "were not diametrically opposed to three lanes. I will support three lanes."
Re-imagining Front Street is a component of the Centennial Drive Municipal Class Environmental Assessment that is part of the $17-million waterfront redevelopment plan passed by council last year.
