Dear Council; Reinstate the Arterial Road connection from 22 St. & 40 Ave. to Molly Banister

Dear City Council;

Wherever you look in politics you see politicians enriching the few at cost to the masses.

Ontario Premier Ford said that the Greenbelt was safe, the people spoke loud and clear. Then he opened-up the Greenbelt for development.

Premier Smith is going ahead with a Alberta Provincial Police Force even though the people have spoken against it. Coal mining, health care privatization, and a school curriculum are being pushed on us even though the public spoke out against it. They removed the right for school boards to bring in mask mandates and to go to on-line learning during epidemics, outbreaks and emergencies though the public opposed these measures.

In Red Deer the people spoke, in polls and in a 9 hour public meeting and fearful home owners thought they had made their voices heard. But they weren’t heard, were they?

You never consulted with or invited the East Hill residents to speak before you eroded the east-west transportation link at 22 St., when you down graded the connector road from an arterial road to a collector road.

You could have said no to this latest request, respecting the people you serve who poured their hearts out during the pandemic. Now you unanimously supported the first reading, subjecting more than a thousand plus people to uncertainty.

The thing is, regardless of rationale, you have put yourself in the same class of mistrust as the other politicians, I mentioned earlier. You also instilled fear into the people that even if you vote to keep the bridge and vote to upgrade the road back to an arterial road, you ensured they knew, that this would only be a 6 month reprieve, the developer can reapply every 6 months.

Most people do not want to go to a public meeting in January, and then every 6 months to protect their quality of life so a developer can make a few extra bucks over the next 3 years.

For you it is politics but for us it is our lives, our home our future. I think you should have nipped this now, but you did not.

I think it would be prudent for city council after this next public hearing, reinstate the arterial road and the bridge over the creek. The city should disclose the cost of doing so compared to the cost of widening 32 Street to 6 lanes and the cost of the traffic circle at 19 Street and 40 Avenue and the cost of widening 19 street to 6 lanes.

When 32 Street is extended to 20 Ave and then 10 Avenue the traffic increase will be a given.

When the approximate 1000 homes are built in the next few years in the new subdivision west of 40 Avenue and north of 22 Street, the traffic will only have the exit onto 40 Avenue if the bridge is not built.

The developer will probably want to tie into Sunnybrook at the corner Springfield Avenue and Selkirk Boulevard so the traffic there will be increased through a school zone.

So reinstate the arterial road and bridge and tie onto Molly Banister for greater east-west transportation.

Just saying.

Garfield Marks