[All] Fw: Re: Half of Wilmot Line Paved...

Mon Jul 18 12:04:16 EDT 2011

FYI re: Wilmot Line

--- On Mon, 7/18/11, Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com> wrote:

From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
Subject: Re: [All] Half of Wilmot Line Paved...
To: "Kevin Thomason" <kevinthomason at mac.com>
Date: Monday, July 18, 2011, 12:03 PM

Hi Kevin

Chances are this work was authorized by Gary Charbonneau CETof the Township of Wilmot with the work being coordinated by Wilmot Township employee David Kleine who can be reached at  (519)634-8525. I strongly advise you make a request to review the approval paperwork regarding the road augmentation to see who approved of this. (If any paperwork actually exists.)

Technically the City of Waterloo, Region and the GRCA should have been consulted about this based on the work done for the Columbia Hills and Clair Hills district plan. (2003-2004) This is the report that secured the establishment of the collector road to offset north bound traffic.

Ron Ormson is responsible for handling issues regarding the West Side Lands at the City of Waterloo end and it is my  guess he'll simply state it is not their jurisdiction. 

If you call Chris Gosselin to give him the heads up on the matter he will most likely say technically the region cannot get involved unless the work is being done within the ESL area.

You should contact John Broom at the GRCA about this matter as well to see if they have been notified about this.

All in all, I've already come to terms personally to the fact that the city, Region and township really don't give a damn about what the public thinks. The cold hard fact is unless you have the funds to challenge them in court, they feel there is no need for them to have to be  compliant to any OMB conditions or established planning protocols. I'm not going to bust my tail to fight this one basically because my back is already broken with the efforts I made. I wish I could help but I've got to focus on the battles I can actually win. 

Lulu

--- On Mon, 7/18/11, Kevin Thomason <kevinthomason at mac.com> wrote:

From: Kevin Thomason <kevinthomason at mac.com>
Subject: [All] Half of Wilmot Line Paved...
To: all at gren.ca
Date: Monday, July 18, 2011, 10:44 AM

Good morning,

I am extremely saddened to report that with no advance notice or warning on Friday the Southern half of the Wilmot Line was hard-surfaced by the Township of Wilmot despite our years of efforts of trying to keep this roadway gravel to reduce traffic volumes and speeds into the Laurel Creek Headwaters Environmentally Sensitive Landscape.

It appears that this paving right up to the boundary of the ESL has been done very deviously with no advance public notice to area landowners, no signage and no notification to the City of Waterloo Council who shares the maintenance and costs of this road with the Township.  In the past, the City of Waterloo has consistently refused Wilmot's requests to upgrade this road and there are several Waterloo motions committing to keeping this road gravel, limiting traffic to 1,000 cars per day, etc. 

Not only are there the issues of an upgraded tar and chipped road encouraging significant amounts of traffic into the ESL area - exactly where we want to reduce the volume of traffic and not create a new Westside Waterloo bypass, but there are also the issues of the significant amounts of salt that are now going to be required on these hills in winter that could particularly impact SubWatershed 302 - the headwaters for the pristine Monastery Creek cold water trout fishery - one of the best cold water streams in the Region along with the wetlands in this area.

As well, there are the safety issues of increasing speeds and volume of traffic on a road that is quite hilly, has limited sightlines, countless hikers, joggers, cyclists, horses, etc. and has already seen numerous accidents and a fatality recently.  The new pavement now ends abruptly at the top of Horror Hill and it will be quite the shock for motorists to suddenly find the road surface changing under them, exactly at the moment they find themselves plummetting down one of the steepest hills in the Region.

I will be presenting to the City of Waterloo Council tonight and will try to work with the Township of Wilmot and the Region of Waterloo to see what our options are and what can be done to address the safety and environmental concerns.  It is extremely disappointing to see Wilmot working against the efforts of so many to protect this area and ensure our roads are safe.

Please let me know any questions or ideas.

Thank you,
Kevin.

-------------------------------------

Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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