Another safety review or community consultation may be coming down the pike on the roundabout planned for St. Davids in Niagara-on-the-Lake, as the town votes to urge Niagara Region to pause work on the roundabout until it completes the regional transportation master plan.
Councillors approved the request last Tuesday, after amending a motion tied to the transportation master plan. The motion was brought forward by Coun. Adriana Vizzari, who said it was not meant to reject the roundabout or stall work.
“This motion is not about opposing a roundabout, or about delaying infrastructure for the sake of delay,” Vizzari said.
She said it was reasonable to ensure major investment in St. Davids aligns with updated regional planning advice, “so decisions are made with the best and most current information available.”
During discussion, Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa cautioned councillors against assuming the regional plan’s possible impact, noting the region told him it is a “macro-level study.”
“I called up the director and I asked him what his thoughts and great advice would be for doing something like this — and I wrote down what he said,” he said, telling The Lake Report he spoke with Frank Tassone, the director of transportation services for Niagara.
Zalepa said he was told the regional plan looks at broad transportation issues, including “the movement of goods and corridors and the movement of active transportation,” but will not dictate “the level of service and suggested infrastructure.”
He said council needed that distinction in order to move forward.
“I think that’s a critical piece of information — that you should have before you do something like this,” said Zalepa.
Vizzari said she still saw a relation between the explanation Zalepa received from the region and her intent.
“I think what you’re suggesting almost aligns with my motion,” she said.
“We’ve now decided a massive piece of infrastructure within St. Davids,” said Vizzari. “I’m suggesting that, if we’re doing a transportation master plan for the area, that we pause that to make sure that we look at what, exactly, this plan suggests.”
Coun. Maria Mavridis asked Vizzari to clarify the motion’s intent and said she thought Vizzari had hoped the regional plan could help address “all the safety for walkability.”
Mavridis then asked council to amend the motion “to align more with what the end goal was.”
Coun. Andrew Niven proposed an amendment: to “request additional safety review or community consultation based off the regional transportation master plan.”
“If there’s some feeling that there may be some safety issues as we go forward with this,” Niven said, “maybe pull those safety mechanisms out of the transportation master plan, when it comes up, and then present it back.”
Vizzari asked staff to clarify who would be responsible for the review or consultation and staff said the intention was to request that the region do those. Vizzari agreed to the amendment and council then approved the motion as amended.
