Charlottetown expanding too quickly, say residents at traffic plan meeting
'It is an area that can be either green space or apartments'
A master traffic plan for the West Royalty neighbourhood of Charlottetown had residents expressing concern about safety, the amount of development in the city, and the openness of council, at a public meeting Monday evening.
The traffic plan is meant to span a couple of decades. It includes extending Spencer Drive, so it would go right through from University Avenue to Mount Edward Road. There's also a plan to widen Capital Drive.
"Some of their traffic flow plans, it's not good," said Heather MacLeod, who lives on Ash Drive.
MacLeod said there is too much development happening, and that it will bring dangerous levels of traffic onto her street and surrounding areas.
Keith Notman agreed there are too many apartments going up too quickly. He now rents in a new subdivision off Towers Road and he said it's very difficult to pull out onto the road when leaving home, because of bumper to bumper traffic.
"It is an area that can be either green space or apartments and they seem to be opting for apartments," he said.
Catherine Mullally took council to task for not doing a better job engaging the public in creation of the traffic plan.
"It's going to be transformative of our city and yet there seems to be so little public information and public involvement," said Mullally.
"What part of this process is transparent or open to public scrutiny?"
Worries about a local park
A brother and sister, 11-year-old John Drake and 16-year-old Laurel Drake, spoke out at the meeting as well.
John Drake said he's worried how changes could affect the community park he and his friends use.
"We always spend a ton of time up there and we see cars just zooming by," he said.
He said extending nearby roads would bring in more traffic.
"I'm worried about kids getting hurt," said John Drake.
Laurel Drake said there is already too much traffic in the area and she questioned why so many apartment buildings were going up.
"We do need to keep our green spaces," she said.
Managing development
Coun. Terry MacLeod, chair of public works, said the plan is trying to prepare for traffic needs in the future and they want to hear people's concerns.
"There's lots of development happening so we want to make sure that the traffic plan is moving forward for years to come," said MacLeod.
"We're trying to combine commercial and residential areas of growth."
There are many stages before any changes may happen, he said. The first step is bringing the engineering design to the public. It must then go to planning board and eventually get approval from council.
MacLeod expects it to be a year or two before any changes may happen.
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