Attendance For Open House To View Updated Conceptual Drawings For Square In Goderich Is Encouraging
by Bob Montgomery
Goderich Mayor Trevor Bazinet says he was very pleased with the turnout at last week's open house for the conceptual drawings for the downtown square.
Bazinet says it's a good indication of the interest Goderich residents have in the project. “We're seeing a lot of good comments and some people have some concerns about some things and we're not going to keep everyone happy with this, but we'll do our best to keep as many people happy as possible. One of the biggest changes we're proposing is going from three traffic lanes around the square to two lanes and those lanes will be marked, which is not the case now.” Bazinet says some people are concerned about the reduction in space for vehicles, but he says that the reduction allows them to widen the sidewalks to create more patio space for their restaurants and making the sidewalks a little more pedestrian friendly. That's a big change and they've received some positive feedback as well as some concerns, but Bazinet points out it is still in the conceptual stage.
Another significant change they're considering is the addition of more tree canopy. “We have Courthouse Park that has a lot of trees but people have also expressed the need for more trees on the sidewalk areas. And they have agreed that tree canopy is important. But now we're trying to figure out how many trees per quadrant do we want. We started with eight. A lot of us felt that was too many. Some of the store owners were concerned that too many would block their signs and the more trees we have the more it would cost the town for maintenance. So right now we're looking at three to five trees per quadrant.” Planting the trees is another issue. They could have big planters on the sidewalk, but some people prefer having them buried in the sidewalk so the plant would be flush with the sidewalk. Bazinet’s concern is that if the planters are on top of the sidewalk they'll take up the space that was created specifically for traffic on the sidewalk so that still has to be decided.
Those are the two biggest issues they're dealing with right now, but active transportation is another one. They wanted to provide an accessible downtown that everyone could enjoy and there are some cyclists in the town that would really like a cycling lane around the square. They have worked on that with their landscape architect and their engineer and concluded the downtown area would not be a safe place for people to ride their bike. What they do want to do is put bike racks around the town so cyclists can ride their bike into town, park them and do their shopping or walk around and then ride their bikes home. Bazinet hopes they will go to tender this fall and award the tender during the winter. If next winter is anything like the last one, they could start working on the project in March.
Goderich Mayor, Trevor Bazinet
