By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Future road plans coming back to August city council meeting

Jul 16, 2022 | 7:00 AM

City council will have another look at a revised plan for Grande Prairie’s future road system at its next meeting in August.

The revisions to the Transportation System Bylaw will come back for more discussion after being at the most recent meeting Monday.

Updates were originally approved by council in April but were rejected by the province.

The issue was the planned access to Highway 43 from recently annexed land on the west side in the Hughes Lake area.

Councillor Dylan Bressey says it is his understanding that the issue was the province wants to limit the number of accesses on the highway to make sure traffic flows efficiently.

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“There is also a line of thought that you want to have as much access onto that highway as possible to make the surrounding industrial area as convenient as possible.”

“What is the priority there? Is the priority getting access to the surrounding area or getting vehicles down the highway as quickly as possible?”

Bressey says this is an area where the city wants “to attract high-scale industrial development.”

“One of the competitive advantages we have with that land is easy access to the highway. I don’t want to limit highway access there because that makes it a less attractive place for industrial properties to invest.”

The new roadway plan outlines what roads would look like when Grande Prairie’s population reaches 120,000 people.

“We are talking long-term plans but also, investors that are making multi-million-dollar investments are looking at those long-term plans because they plan to be there for many decades to come. So, I think our long-term plans are very relevant to investment decisions that are being made today,” adds Bressey.

Bressey says he would like to have a political discussion with the province before any access is removed from the city’s long-term plans. He adds he thinks it was a ministerial decision so it would be best to talk to the provincial minister in charge.

City council’s next meeting is scheduled for August 8.