High River Town staff are hoping to bring back changes they've made to the Traffic Bylaw, for it's second reading on Monday December 9.

While changes like lowering speed limits, and time restricting downtown parking spots have been met with some animosity recently, High River's Manager of Emergency Management and protective services, Peter Genereux says a lot of this was brought up and received well in last Springs public engagement sessions and even suggested in online surveys.

"Its been about a year since we started looking at the Traffic Bylaw which involved doing research on current bylaws, having a close look at our own bylaws and some neighbouring communities such as Okotoks, Calgary, Airdrie and Canmore. We wanted to see what they were doing, the changes they've made and some new best practices." Genereux says "This past Spring we did public engagement on three bylaws which included an online survey as well as face to face public engagement."

One of the topics that seems to need the most changes was the traffic bylaw, including parking and speeding.

"We've heard a lot of complaints about parking downtown for a few years now and that seemed to have started when parking changed with the revitalization of Downtown. We made it more of a walk-able community, which changed the parking structure and what's available."

Those complaints and recommendations lead to the proposal of time limited parking, that council may adopt.

The idea behind the proposal is that employees and shop owners will have to utilize parking lots instead of street parking in front of their stores, which some council members and shoppers believe would open up more store front spaces for those wanting to shop.

Genereux says this would likely be enforced by Foothills Patrol if the bylaw changes are approved.

While the amendments have gone through their first reading in council, Genereux says it's not written in stone.

"We'll have to see what the reaction is in the community, anytime you introduce new elements be it speeds, or different driving patterns or parking then we need to have some public education on it, and get the information out explaining to residents and business owners the goal behind the changes."

Also being brought forward is changes to residential speed limits.

Genereux says many complaints being brought forward seem to be centering on primary and secondary routes.

"Our primary routes are roads like 12th Ave, and Centre Street we also get a lot of complaints about some secondary routes which are roads like High Country Drive, and Riverside Drive."

While many people complain about speeding in town, he says there's still quite a few people against lowering the speed limit to 40 kilometers per hour.

"When we did the public engagement the community was actually fairly split on whether we should lower speed limits or not." He adds "There is a slightly higher number of residents who do want a lower speed limit, which is what we recommended to council, but even in the past council meeting it wasn't very definitive and council wanted to discuss that further."

Genereux says in towns like Nanton and Okotoks who have recently changed their speed limits, it has made a positive impact.

"We've noticed that more and more communities are starting to head that direction, even Calgary has started to do some work on it, looking at lowering their speed limits in residential areas."

Once the bylaw changes are brought to Council for their second reading Genereux says it's up to council whether they will send it out for public feedback or send it back for more revisions.

Currently administration is planning to attend the December 9 council meeting for second reading.

 

Send us your news tips, story ideas and comments at news@highriveronline.com