TBM condo group asks town to plow sidewalks, staff say it could get expensive

A request from a condo board has The Blue Mountains reconsidering how many of the town's sidewalks are cleared of snow in the winter.

The town is considering options for improving its winter sidewalk maintenance, after receiving a letter from the Windfall Condominium Boards that expressed concern about the lack of municipal snow removal within the Windfall development.

The letter outlined a number of issues generated by both the lack of snow removal and the design of the neighbourhood, highlighting safety issues brought about by inaccessible sidewalks in the winter and the lack of adequate storage space for snow.

“During the winter months, when sidewalks are not cleared, residents will use the roadways to pass the sidewalks that are not clear or in an icy condition or state,” the letter stated.

“The roads within the development become rather narrow in the winter due to the amount of snow and density of homes, as a result of the number of driveway openings and lack of space to plow/store snow from homes and driveways.”

While some sections of the sidewalks are cleared by residents with snowblowers, other sections are not properly maintained, and private contractors have refused to clear the sidewalks as they are municipally owned, the letter stated.

“There are additional sidewalks that are used on a regular basis by residents looking to access recreational amenity space, and, most notably children being picked up and dropped off by school buses, which are not in front of any homes and therefore not cleared at all.”

“Regardless of the reasons, financial, practical or otherwise, it is our position that the town has a duty of care to maintain a safe environment for all residents of Windfall development,” stated the letter.

Members of council and staff discussed the issue at a meeting Jan. 17, and moved for staff to bring back a report outlining options for snow removal in the future, including consideration of a town-wide snow clearing program for municipal sidewalks.

“This is probably a six- to seven-per-cent increase to taxation for us to do sidewalks throughout the municipality,” said CAO Shawn Everitt.

“Craigleith doesn't get many sidewalks done. Lora Bay doesn't get sidewalks done. We've got a small area within the Thornbury-Clarksburg area that gets sidewalks done. As our residents are becoming more permanent, we're going to have to start doing sidewalk maintenance in the winter.”

Some members of council highlighted design flaws in local developments that make snow clearing more difficult, and suggested potential solutions when planning future developments.

“The broader issue is around how we designed these developments and whether or not we actually contemplated in the site plans areas for snow to be put,” said Coun. Rob Sampson. “You'll see in some of the areas there's not a lot of space for snow to be dumped from the private property, let alone the sidewalk property, and is that a design fault that we need to be mindful of?”

“When you look at some of the [semi-detached homes] there, by the time you clear the walkway, and the driveway going into the garage, and the front of the building, there is no more space to put any snow,” said Mayor Alar Soever.

Sampson pointed out that some communities in Ontario require residents to clear snow from the sidewalks passing the front of their homes, but that it might be difficult for residents to do in dense developments with little snow storage space.

“I think some of the residents would say leave it up to the residents, like it gets done in let's say downtown Toronto, or downtown Mississauga. You're obligated to clear not only the sidewalk on your own property, but the one that's a public sidewalk in front of your property. I think the counter to that here would be, ‘Well, there's no place to put the snow anyhow.’"

CAO Everitt suggested that the town could forgo sidewalks in future developments, should it assume the work of clearing all current municipal sidewalks.

“If we're committed to sidewalks there are a couple of things that we can look at one when we're doing development: Don't do sidewalks,” he said. “If we're not going to do winter maintenance, then why are we putting sidewalks in?”

Sampson also said that the planning process for developments could benefit from additional cost analyses for municipal services.

“When you take a look at all these developments, we approve them and we applaud their addition to the community at the planning stage. I think we need to also have in the planning report what [the] cost will be to the tax base … when it's assumed for the maintenance of all of this work, garbage collections, snow clearing, road preparations, etc.”

Although no firm decisions were made Jan. 17, members of council stressed that the town needed to act quickly on its direction for snow removal, and to consider how to plan for snow removal in future developments.

“I think the time for action is now, especially because these are developments that are in place, these are snowfalls that are happening today and will happen tomorrow," said Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon. “We need to get that corrected right away, and if it's a matter of funds, we're gonna have to find them, and if it's a matter of what we do on a going forward basis, we have to plan that.”

Councillor Andrea Matrosovs noted with growth comes a change in how services are provided.

“We are a community of communities and we have gone beyond what used to work 20 years ago in Thornbury and Clarksburg,” said Matrosovs. “We chose to amalgamate … to build the growth rate across the community and be able to provide services, and that's our job – to provide services. We have to evolve and grow in those services that we provide, beyond what we looked like … more than 20 years ago when we became The Town of the Blue Mountains.”