The plan to ask the province to close the ramps between Highway 85 and Lancaster Street in Kitchener was voted down at Waterloo Regional Council on Tuesday night.
The vote, which ended up in deadlock, was conducted after impassioned pleas from both Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic and Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe on either side of the issue.
“We have to find an appropriate balance between those who walk, those who cycle and those who use their vehicles to get around our community,” Vrbanovic said, as he asked his fellow councillors to vote the move down.
He noted that the safety concerns were overblown when compared to many other intersections across the region.
The Kitchener mayor said, “We’ve heard from many businesses that this will cause challenges” in an area which has retail locations looking to rejuvenate.
McCabe argued that the interchanges are located very close to the border and will have an impact on Waterloo as well.
She said that she had also heard from business owners and residents who were in favour of closing.
“There’s significantly more crashes on those ramps (than the nearby Bridgeport ramps) and that is the reason why the ministry of transportation is looking to us for guidance from the region to close these ramps and the costs will be covered by them if we do this now,” she pointed out.
In an interesting split, McCabe was joined by Chair Karen Redman, who lives in Kitchener, as well as Kitchener councillors Robert Deutschmann, Colleen James and Kari Williams among others while urging to get the motion passed.
Meanwhile, Michael Harris was the only councillor from Kitchener who sided with Vrbanovic as he relied on help from the townships and Cambridge in getting the motion dismissed.
A staff report had noted that removing the ramps would create safer and smoother drives on that portion of Highway 85 while also making Lancaster safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
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