What you missed from the first all-candidates debate in King Township

King City bypass and GO Transit parking dominate the 2-hour debate

Yorkregion.com
October 9, 2018
Sheila Wang

Dozens of King Township residents gathered on Wednesday to hear candidates vying for six council seats face-off at Nobleton Lakes Golf Club.

Each of the 14 candidates got a chance to introduce themselves and highlight their priorities at the start of the meeting, hosted by the King Chamber of Commerce.

“This is democracy in action. Choice is such an important thing,” said chamber board member Tom Allen at the beginning of the two-hour meeting.

Ward 3 is the only race in the upcoming municipal election with no incumbent running. But Ward 1 and Ward 5 have stolen much of the spotlight as most residents directed their questions to them about traffic and parking issues.

A bypass in King City has been discussed since the 1990s. It was proposed to help relieve the traffic flow on King Road and create an east-west connection to Highway 400.

After years of public consultation, debates, environmental assessment, no final decision has been made on when and where the bypass should be built  in order to divert the increasing traffic volume from King Road.

While there was mostly a consensus on the need for a bypass in the future in King City, Ward 1 and Ward 5 candidates were divided on the options for the bypass: 15th Sideroad or King-Vaughan Road.

Cleve Mortelliti, incumbent Ward 1 councillor, said the 15th Sideroad might be the most likely option but it won’t happen any time soon.

“Wherever you put the road, the cars go,” Mortelliti said. “This is a long-term issue, we won’t see a bypass through the 15th, certainly not in the next three four terms of council.”

“The 15th makes sense,” said Ward 1 candidate Kelly Colasanti, who said he would push for the bypass on the 15th Sideroad with a proper environmental assessment.

Another Ward 1 challenger Jordan Alexander Cescolini focused more on the timing of the construction of the bypass than the location.

“Having cars idle 20, 30 minutes a day just trying to get through the bottleneck of King Road to the 400, that has an enormous impact. Waiting for three, four election terms, some 16, 20 years from now, the impact may have already been made. I think it’s important to get the ball rolling,” Cescolini said.

Citing the environmental assessment that identified the impact on the communities near 15th Sideroad, Ward 5 candidate Rob Payne voiced his strong opposition of having the bypass built on the 15th.

“It’s common sense to know the 15th Sideroad is not a viable option, and again I do not support wasting the tax payers’ money to consider 15th Sideroad when we have the existing two-lane paved road at King-Vaughan,” Payne said.

Incumbent Ward 5 Coun. Debbie Schaefer shared her thoughts on the potential impact on the Kings Cross community if the bypass were built on the 15th.

“In Kings Cross, the properties are very large - minimum two acres - and the cost of putting the pipes in to provide the services would be astronomical and so there isn’t an alternative as far as saying we’ll put the road through and that’s how they’ll be able to have their services. It really is a very impossible situation to suggest putting it through,” Schaefer said.

Her challenger Sasha Mozaffari did not take a clear stance on the location of the bypass but suggested conducting studies before making a decision.

The latest parking study in the core areas of King Township has identified a shortage of parking supply surrounding the King City GO Station.

The GO Transit parking lot is currently at close to 100 per cent capacity, and with the anticipated growth in the area, the parking demand is expected to increase to 161 per cent of the current capacity.

At the same time, quite a number of on-street and off-street parking areas in the core  have been well below capacity.

It led to the question that how the candidates, if elected, would cope with the growing parking demand.

Incumbent Ward 2 Coun. David Boyd and his challenger Sherry Draisey would take different approaches.

Draisey preferred alternative way of travelling while the incumbent would like to build efforts on the existing parking opportunities.

“My preference will be a bus between Nobleton and King City to support people arriving at the GO Station trying to get to Nobleton, but also if less people from Nobleton had to drive to GO Station, there’d be more parking available in King,” Draisey said.

“I think we need to do a better job utilizing our existing parking spots and that can be done through way-finding signages,” Boyd said.

Bill Cober, incumbent Ward 4 councillor, pointed out the parking study did not factor in the human behaviours in the parking issue. He said he’d like to move forward with some of the recommendations put forward in the study.

“Such as allowing residential parking permits in municipal off-street lots. This is an advantage that we have in our corps. But we need to invest money, we’re gonna have to increase lighting, we’re gonna have to increase municipal maintenance,” Cober said.

He also suggested looking at partnerships with private businesses in the core areas.

Cober’s challenger Mary Aselstine was on board with his ideas but noted the importance to make sure the parking lots are convenient and safe for people to utilize.

“I also think making the old arena parking lot into a Green P parking lot will be beneficial, especially for people who are coming out of town,” Aslestine suggested.

The next candidate meeting is slated for Oct. 10 for Ward 1 and Ward 5 candidates.

The meeting, organized by Concerned Citizens of King Township (CCKT), is 7 to 9 p.m. at Villanova School at 15th Sideroad. Go to www.cckt.ca for more information.