Fenelon Falls’ downtown undergoing major facelift
The Fenelon Falls main streetscape will get a facelift when recommendations from the 2016 Fenelon Falls Corridor Study of Lindsay Street and Colborne Streets (CKL 121) are implemented. And while the restructuring is intended to contribute to “traffic calming,” it may result in the opposite reaction from drivers looking for a spot to park.
Benches, waste receptacles, and tree plantings will freshen up the sidewalks, but the most noticeable change for residents and visitors will be a loss of seven parking spots on Colborne Street (the main thoroughfare) between Water Street and Bond Street.
In addition to new curbs, gutters, sewers, and watermains, Curb Bump Outs will be constructed at Water, Francis and Bond Streets. According to Ainley Group Consulting Engineers Planners, the bump outs provide extra staging area for pedestrians, a narrower space to walk across, and contribute to traffic calming. They act as a signal to drivers that they are entering an area where traffic will be heavier and pedestrians more common.
The trade off is a loss of parking spots. Currently there are 53 parking spots in the study area, and that will be reduced to 46 (three of them reserved for disabled drivers) as a result of the changes. Questions regarding the role the site of the Fenelon Falls theatre might play in recouping parking losses were unanswered at deadline.
Questions regarding the role the site of the Fenelon Falls theatre might play in recouping parking losses were unanswered at deadline.
Sidewalks on both sides of Colborne Street will widen to take over the first parking spots north of Water St.
Similar parking sacrifices will occur when bump outs are constructed at the southwest and northeast corners of the Colborne-Francis Street intersection, and on the southwest corner of Colborne and Bond. More will be lost with the lengthening of the northbound right turn lane at Colborne and Francis.
The project will also see a dedicated left turn lane running almost the entire length of the study area, while maintaining a single lane for through traffic.
Comments were taken at the first public information meeting May 24 at the Fenelon Falls Community Centre, and will be received until June 21. A second meeting is planned, but a date is yet to be determined.
If you wish to forward additional comments, send to:
Ms. Elizabeth Bonucchi, P. Eng.
Ainley Group
1-50 Grant Timmins Drive Kingston, ON K7M 8N2
Phone: (343)-266-0002 extension 207
Mr. John Innes, C.E.T.
City of Kawartha Lakes
12 Peel Street, P.O. Box 9000 Lindsay, ON K9V 5R8
Phone: (705) 324-9411 extension 1164
Email:
I really wonder how much of our tax payer money is wasted on such things as redesigning a street to make it worse instead of better. Just think of the winter time when the plows are clearing snow! So instead of making the street more visible to people crossing it there will be mountains of snow on the bump outs to block their vision.