A request by Town of Huntsville staff to get a portion of an unassumed road up to municipal standards has been overturned by the planning committee that heard a deputation from a citizen requesting rezoning on their property. A bylaw approving the application was passed at Council Monday evening.
Jill Perry, was making the application for rezoning so a small home business operating at her property could do so lawfully. The town’s Senior Planner, Elizabeth Reimer, argued that the business would bring increased traffic to the area and thus Seelys Road would have to be upgraded at the residents’ expense along the 180-metre private road, which is located near North Mary Lake Road. Councillor Jonathon Wiebe contends this was not an area the town needed to get involved:
But a few questions by Planning Committee members including Wiebe determined that a holding provision requiring engineering reports and potential road upgrades would not be required:
Perry explained how her property is home to a transport truck that weighs 8,500 kg and a school bus that weighs around 9,000 kg, while heavy equipment using the road for new builds up the street are three times as heavy, with no ramifications to the stability of the roadbed over the past year.
Wiebe says the Town should want to stay out of the business of monitoring and acquiring private roads as much as possible, with plenty to worry about with the existing infrastructure: