There has been keen interest
in Sidewalks and Curbs
around the residential neigbourhoods in Wasaga Beach. This includes replacing ditches with buried storm sewers.
There are a lot of pros and cons on the subject. The biggest of course is "cost". That comes with the inevitable "who's gonna pay for it!
I inquired about a number of different projects around town. Long string of communiques, but I'll just show one quick one to highlight a few things....:
Hi Mr. Bortlisz.
The short answer is no, the owners fronting the work zone will not be assessed / have to pay anything for the improvements.
As a longer answer, we only assess / issue a local improvement charge to the “benefitting owners” when there is a direct benefit to that lot, such as installation of new sanitary sewer and water services to their property line providing them with municipal servicing, and/or for example a brand new road being constructed to provide them access to a lot where access was not previously available. In the case of River Road West, it is just a widening / urbanization project that benefits the entire Town, not just those fronting the work zone.
This project of approximately $6M was funded largely by Development Charges for “growth related projects” (about $4M) with the difference being funding by Provincial CWWF grant (about $2M) that we were successful in receiving.
Regards,
Mike Pincivero, P.Eng.
It does often become a little more complicated when it's just one small area that is requesting the improvements....if it is not of benefit to the whole town owners may get charged back for their portion. Regardless of where the money comes from, it can get very expensive.
So there are a lot of Pros and Cons you need to consider very carefully. Most of the pros are fairly obvious, neat, clean, add to your property values, can be cleared of snow with big machines etc.
But then there are a lot of cons many people never consider. The environment, use of concrete mean more mega quarries. Injuries, the harder the surface the more likely a fall causes breaks and concussions. Many areas are now looking at soft surface alternatives.
Ditches on the other hand stop cars.....and of course in the winter are a good place to push all our snow to....
In our winters concrete takes a beating, and can get very icy. Tree roots must be cut for installation, and as new trees grow they heave the slabs. And again are usually right were our winter pows push our snow.....
All of these thing can become very expensive to maintain and repair.........
I tried to find out from some of our neighbouring communities if they have ever done a "cost / benefit analysis" on this type of infrastructure. I was unsuccessful. I did not find anything on Google either, except this following article that makes you realize there are many other considerations. It's an interesting read.(not long) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/sidewalk-experiments-drive-new-ideas-about-urban-public-space/article1314518/?utm_source=Shared+Article+Sent+to+User&utm_medium=E-mail:+Newsletters+/+E-Blasts+/+etc.&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links
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