The city will be making a decision September 14 I do believe. Please contact the city by August 31 to let them know.

If the Molly Bannister Extension wasn’t needed, it would have been an easy decision to remove the right of way. But it is deemed necessary for proper planning. So, that brings me to my question, which is.

“How much suffering are so many Red Deer residents supposed to bear and how much are Red Deer taxpayers supposed to spend to benefit so few?”

The City Council in a split decision decided to postpone a decision about the Molly Bannister extension for 12 weeks.

Intuition tells me, that the Molly Bannister Extension will be built, but probably in about thirty years. This issue has been around for at least 25 or more years.

If the need for it, in city hall’s long term planning for a livable city, when the population will be substantially higher, wasn’t there, this issue would have disappeared years ago.

But the need is there. Some at city council would have us keep throwing money at it until a magic solution reveals itself.

32 Street is about 6 lanes wide now at 40 Ave. but the street is only metres from housing and apartments. Will a 12 million dollar traffic circle at 19 St. solve that?

We all know someone who thinks our issues are nothing compared to the old days or real cities, but I am not living in the old days, and if I wanted to live in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto or Vancouver, I would.

Why not look after the residents along 32 St.? We don’t have a giant berm between us and with 32 St. only metres away.  We know, Deerfoot Trail in Calgary is worse but we live in Red Deer.

The city mandated denser housing of approximately 17 residential units per hectare and with 60 hectares out of 73 hectares in most quarter sections, that would mean a 1,020 new homes and with 2.3 residents per unit that means 2346 residents.

The only entry and/or exit will be on 40 Ave, Westbound exiting traffic would then use 32St. or 19 ST. like all the traffic leaving all the other current and planned neighbourhoods along 22 St.

12 weeks will go by, and the city council will finally realize that the city planners were right and keep the Molly Bannister Extension right of way secure. The old information might have been collected 10 years ago, but information collected this year will be just as redundant in 30 years if we proceed.

In 30 years we may not need it, you never know. At least if we do, we can build it.

Like the developer said at the Bower Public Hearing: “If we remove the right-of-way now the city won’t be able to build the bridge in the future when they need it,” “ It would be very difficult.”

I am glad the majority on City Council decided against spending $200,000 on new soon to be redundant information and I hope they don’t think that a possible $12 million traffic circle on 19 Street will be their panacea.

All this so a developer can build 50 more houses backing onto Piper Creek.

How much will it cost the many, so the few can make more money? Just asking.