Ridge Road closure expected to come sooner than residents anticipated

September 3, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Residents on Aurora’s Ridge Road were left seeing red recently after they were told a plan to limit Yonge Street access to their street was coming sooner than originally envisioned.

Over the past year, the Town of Aurora, Region of York, and residents on the south-end street have been working to come up with a workable solution to objections raised from neighbours over an incoming subdivision. The plan calls for nearly 30 homes to be built, along with an access street connecting Ridge Road and the new neighbourhood.

While this new road will connect the two neighbourhoods, it will also provide an “out” for those living on Ridge Road who will see access to their own street from Yonge significantly limited to a right-in right-out turn once the Region’s plan for a transit corridor down the centre of Yonge Street is realised in a decade. A fully signalized new intersection at Yonge Street with the new subdivision would then be Ridge Road’s primary access to Aurora’s busiest traffic artery.

When Council approved the plan this summer, that was the timeline neighbours said they had come to expect, but things changed significantly following further meetings with Regional planners.

“Materially, not much has changed aside from the timing of the connection between the new subdivision and Ridge Road,” said Marco Ramunno, Aurora’s Director of Planning, following a public meeting with neighbours last month.

It was true when it was approved by Council in July that the new road connecting to Ridge Road would be barricaded from access until work on the Yonge Street transit lane was complete, but the Region since “clarified” its position, he added.

“With the original position of the Region, that would have put [restricting access] off a number of years depending on the timing of [transit],” he said. “At this point, once the subdivision is complete, our recommendation to implement the Region’s connection would be to have that full connection made when the 29 homes are constructed. That way, Ridge Road residents and the new residents use the new road, have use of the new intersection at Yonge Street, which should also be signalized, and that is a better access point onto Yonge Street.”
Ridge Road neighbours, however, bristled at the latest development.

“We agreed to the trigger being the new bus lane,” said one resident objecting to the trigger happening much sooner than they anticipated.
“The Region has done a complete switch on us,” added another.

For other Ridge Road residents, access was not the only sticking point. Their concerns also stemmed from where this connection road is slated to be built, near the crest of a hill which already presents difficulties for the neighbourhood, they said.

“Why is it that this road still has to be in the worst part of the hill?” questioned one neighbour. “For years, we have had to back down and speed up just to get out of my driveway, even with all-wheel drive. These people are just gaining enough speed to get up there and, boom, you have to turn in here. I am not sure why they have allowed this road. It should be further to the east. This is just a bad place to be.”

From Mr. Ramunno’s perspective, however, these residents’ complaints can only go so far. The Region’s position, he said, is “pretty clear” but he will voice Ridge Road’s concerns to the Regional Planners.

“There are some residents that don’t have an issue with it, some of whom would rather see the road closed altogether, some of whom would rather see it restricted so they can use it. There are different opinions, but it is just a question about timing, that it could be happening in three years, as opposed to six or seven.”

Aurora anticipates development of the subdivision to get underway in earnest in the next year, completing their engineering and, optimistically, their service work by the end of 2015, with the 29 homes completed “towards the end of 2016.”

“At that point, we would remove the barricade, that access would remain open, and we would then restrict Yonge and Ridge Road,” said Mr. Ramunno.