Hubbards residents secure more than $50K to improve road safety in their community

A pandemic and the need to secure thousands of dollars in funding didn’t hinder residents of Hubbards from propelling towards their goal of making the streets and roads in their community safer.

“It’s been so exciting just to see how residents feel, to meet people. I can’t believe the growth and support we’ve had from locals. I’m excited to hear what their ideas are for the future,” said Erica Riley-Butler, a committee member of the Hubbards Streetscape Project.

The project was launched less than a year ago by a small group of residents who shared significant safety concerns about street and road safety in their community.

Their Facebook group quickly grew to more than 1,300 members who expressed the many infrastructure changes they feel are needed in order to transform feelings of fear into feelings of empowerment for all road users in their community.

“A request for sidewalks, for widened shoulders, for bike lanes, for beautification. We have so many amenities in such a dense location, it seems kind of foolish that it’s not safe enough to walk to them,” said Matt Morash, another Hubbards Streetscape Project committee member.

The twinning of Highway 103 is something that also sparked their drive to push the community-led project forward.

“Development is on its way and as a community, we would like to help shape that,” Morash said.

Over the span of seven months, the group secured more than $50,000 in funding from the Nova Scotia Association of Community Development Business Corporation, the Department of Communities, Culture, and Heritage and the Aspotogan Heritage Trust.

“The funds let us professionally design a site plan for Hubbards that takes into consideration what is feasible, what is possible, engineering-wise,” Morash said.

The road through Hubbards is a highway. Therefore, the province has to grant permission for infrastructure changes to proceed, which will then fall onto the municipalities of Chester and Halifax to implement and maintain.

Both municipalities are working on potential funding supports for the project.

“My role was to support them in the work that they were doing and also go to council to find out if we could support this initiative moving forward in the hopes that we can have other communities galvanized to create main streets along rural Nova Scotia,” said Pamela Lovelace, the Halifax Regional Municipality councillor for Hubbards.

The next step for the grassroots group is to work with its hired design team to further engage the community on an overall redesign vision.

“We can’t wait to hear their solutions that they come up with and their ideas about preserving our heritage and what Hubbards is to all of us, while also trying to plan for its future,” Morash said.