Josh Brown celebrated with a beer and cheer when he got the good news.
Brown and his friend Brad Taylor received an email announcing their year-long push to have the Sugarbush Line 6 entrance moved approximately 100 metres east on the hilly Horseshoe Valley Road had finally been approved.
“It’s great news. We’re very happy and excited they made that decision,” Brown said. “I think it’s going to work best for the whole community and be a much safer entrance.”
Brown is referring to the decision by Democrat Homes to adhere to a 1994 Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) ruling indicating the Sugarbush entrance should be moved northeast of its current location.
A few years ago, a right-turning lane was installed, and engineers believed they had made the Horseshoe Valley Road entrance adequate for turning into the subdivision, said Oro-Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes.
However, as Hughes points out, it’s the location of the entrance and the snow streamers across the mountains that make the current location unsafe.
“It was problematic whenever there was a snowstorm and you were trying to make a left-hand turn to get up the hill,” Hughes said. “Your concern would be that you would get out on the road and it would be slippery, or your car wouldn’t go or go sideways. Farther down (east) is flatter, even though there is a slight decline – from everyone’s perception at least – is that entrance would be safer.”
Democrat Homes made a presentation to council in January, suggesting widening Line 6 at its current location, but Brown and Taylor’s petition with more than 950 signatures, and their deputation to council earlier this month, were enough for the builder to reconsider its road-renovation model.
An email was received by township staff Feb. 23 indicating Democrat Homes "are intending to proceed forward with the easterly intersection improvements and not continuing with their request to the Township of Oro-Medonte to consider, as an alternative, improvements at the existing Line 6 intersection."
Township staff will continue to work through the draft plan of the subdivision requirements with the builder.
Cheryl Browne, Local Journalism Initiative, Barrie Advance
