Foothills Terrace condominium residents have successfully lobbied for changes to a rear lane shared between residents and businesses they say has caused major problems for years.
The easiest and quickest solution to control speed, safety and dust in the rear lane between Third St. NW and Second St. NW north of Highway 27 is to change it to a one-way only lane way, says Jim Hall, the town's manager of operations.
Council has agreed, recently passing a motion approving the change in traffic movement. Staff says once the new traffic signs come arrive the change will take place which is expected within about three weeks.
David Lewis said for the past six years the condo association board has asked the town to control the dust and fix potholes in the back alley adjacent to the condo building.
“I realize this is small potatoes to you guys with what you have on your plate but to us in the condominium it's a very big thing,” Lewis recently told council.
Operations department staff conducted traffic counts on several days to get an idea of what type of traffic was coming through there and where they were coming from.
“So some of the things that we found are sightline issues with people from the Terrace condominiums coming out and their fear of safety from traffic coming through. So what we've done is we've looked at several different ways to mitigate that,” Hall said.
Making the lane one-way from west to east entering from RPM will keep vehicles from “just flying through there if they're just using it to get through,” said Hall.
With the addition of signage reflecting the 15 kilometre an hour speed limit, the introduction of no parking down the lane and enforcement and education, it should slow vehicles down, he added.
While he is investigating various dust suppression applications, Hall is not recommending applying calcium and thinks there's another solution.
“For this year's capital we've put in a system where we can displace water and reduce the dust and also do some more regular gradings...which will reduce the dust again,” Hall said.
Businesses and adjacent property owners were given a chance to comment on the proposed changes.
Responses included the opinion that the current speed limit or the addition of speed bumps should be sufficient in slowing traffic down, that paving the lane would be a positive method in reducing dust concerns, and one business responded that turning the lane into a one-way would be too confusing for residents.
Hearing council's approval of Hall's recommended solutions, Lewis said he was appreciative that something was finally being done.
“That's the whole exercise to get something and boy do we appreciate the work that's going on towards that,” Lewis said.
"I realize this is small potatoes to you guys with what you have on your plate but to us in the condominium it's a very big thing."David LewisTerrace condo board president
