EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story contained an error about the motion that was approved at a Public Works meeting. This story has been edited for clarification.
Some residents on Fellowes Crescent in Waterdown want their bollards to stay where they are.
At a Public Works meeting on Monday (May 13), resident Steven Oliver delegated that the city should not go ahead with removing the safety bollards at the end of his street.
For 22 years, Fellowes Crescent was a dead end street, before a new development added 70 new homes east of the crescent, creating a continuation of the road.
In 2014, the city approved a plan to put bollards in at the end of Fellowes Crescent, to stop through traffic until the planned lane expansion of Parkside Drive is complete.
Those bollards have been cutting off the road since 2016, making both the old and new sides of Fellowes Crescent dead end streets, which Oliver says is safer for the large number of children in the neighbourhood.
Now, the city might remove them.
“Seventy out of 79 homes support the bollards to remain,” Oliver said.
“What’s happened over the eight years is that it's become a lifestyle and a quality-of-life issue that people want on both sides.”
Concerns about through traffic, mixed with the neighbourhood not having a sidewalk and homes having short driveways are some of the reasons for the petition, he said.
When looking at the 2014 motion that put the bollards in, Oliver argued there were three things that needed to be done before the bollards can come out.
The residential construction needs to be completed, Parkside Drive needs to be widened and have its construction completed, and the Waterdown Bypass between Dundas St. and Parkside needs to be finished. While the city considers the section of the bypass and the residential construction completed, the upgrades to Parkside Drive still haven't begun.
What’s missing, Oliver said, is the completion of the Parkside Drive improvements.
And the city needs to revisit that condition.
Oliver’s delegation was received by the Public Works Committee, while the committee approved a motion to accept the report on removing the bollards, and a motion to enhance safety initiatives by Waterdown Coun. Ted McMeekin.
The final decision will be ratified by city council at a later date.
