By Angelica Babiera, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter – Guelph Today
As talks of population growth and the county’s road map fill committee and council agendas, a local Erin resident has taken action upon himself by writing a correspondence letter to council regarding any road improvements to Erin roads in response to the forecasted population growth and possible traffic issues.
At Tuesday’s virtual meeting, the county’s road committee discussed former Erin mayor Lou Maieron’s Jan. 8 letter, in which he asked if there will be any road improvements to the county arterial road system in response to the forecasted population growth the Town of Erin will be experiencing in the coming years.
Maieron noted that Erin is mostly a bedroom commuting municipality as major highways such as Trafalgar Road, and Highways 401, 410, 407, 403 are linked to the town roads.
“If all goes according to plan, there is a projected 5,000 new homes or some 15,000 new residents arriving in the Town of Erin shortly,” Maieron stated in his letter.
“Currently, the county road system in Erin to move people and goods southbound and eastbound efficiently is substandard and virtually non-existent. Tripling the current urban population will only exacerbate this ongoing commuting problem.”
In the town’s economic development plan report for the years 2019 to 2023, it is reported that approximately 57 per cent of the employed resident workforce in Erin commute, which means that approximately 57 per cent were using county roads and major highways.
The main destinations people commuted to for work were:
Mississauga, which 915 people commuted to;
Brampton, 595 people commuted to;
Halton Hills, which 455 people commuted to; *
Toronto, which 355 people drove to;
and Guelph, which had 340 Erin residents commuted to.
“At present a patchwork of local roads and some lower ranked county roads creates a jigsaw network of road connections to move most commuters south and east, to the residents’ jobs and businesses,” wrote Maieron.
“This patchwork is already heavily traveled and more traffic from 15,000 new residents will just make traffic slower, more cumbersome and less efficient.”
However, Mayor Allan Alls and Coun. Jeff Duncan doesn’t believe that the county needs to rush at this stage of the game to make any decision on Erin’s roads network as the population growth will not happen any time soon.
“Erin is going to grow but not by the numbers he’s talking about; roughly 10,000 people because we’re limited to 14,500 according to our environmental assessment,” explained Alls.
“This is going to spread 20-30 years, maybe sooner if the province gets their way but it’s a long way away.”
Duncan noted that the county’s RMAP took Erin’s population growth into account when conducting the analysis study. It did not identify any new major roadways or bypasses for the Town of Erin.
“The county roads will not be at capacity; it wasn’t one of the capacity areas of concern in the study,” said Duncan.
He also explained that Erin’s 9th Line could have been a good county road option, if it wasn’t for Winston Churchill Boulevard that’s just two and a half kilometres east of 9th Line.
“It’s a major north-south Ontario road that’s looked over by the county and Region of Peel. (county engineer) Don Kudo gave me some numbers over Christmas, and so far, the county has already put $3 million on it. We’re projected over the years to spend around $12.25 million on it for roadway reconstruction,” explained Duncan.
“When you add in Region of Peel’s number, it’s probably over a $33 million major re-do of Winston Churchill boulevard. You’re not gonna have two arterial collector regional roads that are parallel to each other; it’s not necessary.”
As such, the committee received the letter for information and decided to not have any further discussion on it.
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