Sidewalk 'crappy planning' by city in neighbourhood: Markham resident

City said it needs to link townhouse development through to Hwy. 7

Yorkregion.com
July 10, 2018
Tim Kelly

A longtime resident of a Markham street is angry the city is building a sidewalk he believes is “crappy planning” and “absolutely not needed.”

Tom Mitchell, who has lived on Lichfield Road in Unionville for more than 20 years, feels the sidewalk that will be built on his side of the street that will connect to Sciberras Road just isn’t the right plan.

Mitchell, whose driveway has been marked up for the sidewalk -- being constructed to connect a townhouse development built recently at the base of Lichfield, to allow safe access to Sciberras and from there to link to Highway 7 -- feels there is an alternative to the sidewalk plan.

He said townhouse residents could access alleyways on each side of their building to make their way through to Highway 7.

Mitchell believes if the city really wanted to build a sidewalk on Lichfield Road, it could have done so any time in the previous two decades but chose not to.

“It was a case of saving money by not having to build a sidewalk … the city claims they’re worried about safety; for the last 40 years there is a park where kids play and mothers walk their strollers and babies and kids with no sidewalks, it’s Toogood Park,” he said.

The city, in an email response to concerns raised by residents over the need for the sidewalk, which involves cutting through a portion of their driveways, and removing trees and electrical boxes, said the “Sunrise (townhouse) development is the trigger for the new sidewalk."

“Specific to this case, the new sidewalk provides the new (and existing) residents of Lichfield Road a more direct and safer walking route to the public transit stop at Sciberras Road and Highway 7 and to the retail and institutional amenities east of Sciberras Road on Highway 7,” the city response said, in addition to claiming the sidewalk: improves pedestrian safety; removes accessibility barriers to residents with disabilities as per the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act; enhances opportunities for walking and recreation; and will enhance walking accessibility to public amenities, public transit, local retail and commercial activities.

The city also plans to build a sidewalk on the Lichfield Road extension to Ferrah Street and it would abruptly end if not extended on Lichfield Road, necessitating a continuation, it said.

For Mitchell, though, the issue comes down to choices being made by city planners and politicians and he feels the wrong one is being made here.

“They (city) have shown a total lack of due diligence over safety in the entire neighbourhood … I just find it outrageous they would treat us with such indifference,” he said.

“You’re going to spend a lot of money putting in sidewalks, cutting down trees, moving electrical boxes, moving cable boxes, disrupting 20 residents on the street with trucks, heavy vehicles to do the sidewalks, giving us difficulties getting in and out of our driveways during the process.”