Elma Street residents surprised and upset by plans to take the jog out of the road crosses Veterans Way were pleased when council nixed the idea this week.
Okotoks council voted unanimously to leave Elma Street as is Monday afternoon.
A coalition of people in the area, who call themselves the Friends Of Elma Street (FOES), formed when plans to re-align Elma Street emerged at a council meeting in early June.
Elma Street resident Sean Buckley represented the group when they spoke at Monday’s council meeting.
Buckley told council he had been at an open house in November 2014 to see the plans for Veterans Way. He said there was nothing in the design at that time to align Elma Street West and East. He said he was told at the open house it was being discussed. He asked some questions, but said Town staff never got back to him.
It wasn’t until a neighbour came to his door in June with plans that showed the street lining up on either side of Veteran’s Way (formerly Centre Avenue) that he found out the changes to Elma Street were going ahead.
“It was completely mishandled,” Buckley said. “The whole communication cycle did not happen.”
Around 20 concerned Elma Street residents had a meeting with Town staff and then CAO Rick Quail on June 9, said Buckley.
They had concerns over losing space in front of historic homes in the area, reducing parking on East Elma and losing space and trees in the Frederick Pryce Memorial Park, the location of the town’s cenotaph.
After meeting with residents town administration decided to suspend the tender process for the project and the issue of aligning Elma Street was brought back before council.
Council unanimously voted to axe the plans to re-align Elma Street at the Veteran’s Way intersection.
“We have a curious little intersection and the opportunity to fix it,” Sands said. “It’s a historical geographical oddity that they are willing to live with. I’m not here to force a redesign on anybody.”
Sands said there are no guarantees, but he said the issue shouldn’t be raised for a long time.
“I don’t want the residents to think we’ll drag this out of the bag in six months,” Sands said. “I would think this is a good 20 years before this comes back up.”
Okotoks engineering manager Marley Oness said it is hard to know when re-alignment of Elma Street will be raised again.
“The entire vision of our downtown and what we want our downtown to be may be the impetus to look at changing it or maintaining it the way it is,” Oness said. “Inevitably there will be more people and increased traffic at the intersection.”
Work on Veterans Way to widen the east sidewalk and create a multi-use pathway on the west side will now again go to tender.
Buckley indicated they also weren’t happy with the idea of putting in a lane for cyclists and skateboarders because he said, the steep hill is too dangerous for such activities.
Councilor Matt Rockley said the move will make the hill more safe on the highly used road that connects the north area of town to the downtown.
“People are going to sue it whether it is safe or not, but we can make it a lot safer,” Rockley said. “If we do away with the cycle lane, realistically what will happen is the cyclists will continue to use the road.”
The project was to cost $1.6 million.
Oness said the town will save $100,000 to $150,000 by taking the re-alignment of Elma Street out of the project.
However, the final cost won’t be known until the Town receives bids on the tender.
This is the first of three phases. The entire project is expected to cost $3 million.
