Written by Noel Edey Wednesday, May 16 2018, 4:41 PM
Town Councillor Tara McFadden isn’t thinking about today or tomorrow. She’s looking to the future of the Griffin Road corridor as it evolves into the third section of our downtown.
At Monday’s council meeting, McFadden gave notice of a motion to have the town administration investigate the possibility of a Griffin Road Corridor Design Study.
The face of Griffin is already changing and when the new bridge comes onstream and if the Greystone development moves forward that change could be accelerated. That’s why the town needs to take a serious look at the overall design of the transportation corridor, she believes. Her only hope is it’s not too late.
Town Councillor Tara McFadden
“Looking ahead, we need to understand that this is going to be one of our main arteries,” says McFadden. “It’s going to go through the heart of our community and we really need to have a plan in place for what that really looks like it and how people want to use it; how they want to drive, how they want to cycle, how they walk, how they want to experience it, how the intersections work and how the businesses engage with that. It’s also going to be fairer to the businesses who are going to invest there to make sure they have certainty in what the municipality is asking.”
While the basic transportation corridor is in place, it’s the subtitles of planning that will make it a complete and functioning part of the community.
“It’s no longer going to be a dead end road. It’s going to be an exciting commercial centre and we need to make sure we’re looking ahead and make sure we’re putting the best planning in place.”
McFadden will be asking her colleagues to support the study that would clearly establish the design criteria to guide future development. By July, she would like to see an estimate of the cost and timeline for the study.
“The sooner we get on it, the better, so I hope my colleagues will support this idea that we need to get ahead of the planning.”
The motion will be coming forward at a future council meeting.
