GTA West Corridor concerns in King Township
Proposed highway would link a number of existing 400-series highways
Yorkregion.com
Sept. 4, 2015
By Tim Kelly
Nearly 50 Nobleton and area residents have signed a petition demanding the proposed GTA West Corridor highway take the most southerly route of three options available.
The residents, who live mostly on Diana Drive, Ranch Trail Road and King-Vaughan Road, made it clear in a letter to council last week, they don’t want the future highway coming anywhere close to their neighbourhood.
And the Township, which also doesn’t want the Province to approve the most northerly option available, seems to agree with them.
The GTA West Corridor highway, which has been in the study stages for years and is well over a decade away from construction, would link highways 401/407 to the southwest with Hwy. 400 in the northeast.
It’s under consideration to deal with the expected growth in the GTA from a current population of 6.5 million to almost 10 million by 2041 and would take pressure off highways 401 and 407.
In a staff report that will be sent to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, the Region of York and the City of Vaughan, King Township makes a number of requests including:
- construction of interchanges at Weston Road and Hwy. 27;
- support of two southerly routes versus the most northerly route of the highway nearest the Township;
- interchange connectivity for both King-Vaughan Road and Kirby Road in the area of the GTA West Freeway be provided to ensure traffic from Hwy 400 has access to both freeways;
- that there be no link between King Township’s Seventh Concession and Vaughan’s Pine Valley Drive.
It’s believed the freeway could be the answer to King’s long-desired east-west bypass to take car and truck traffic off King Road.
But Councillor Debbie Schaefer has her doubts.
“I don’t think the GTA West Corridor is the right solution. I think there’s a very low probability of that (bypass) happening since it seems to be a toll road, it’s quite evident that trucks right now don’t use the 407 ETR as much as they could because it’s a toll; skeptical about this one possible benefit to us,” said Schaefer.
Nobleton Councillor David Boyd raised worries about truck traffic coming off the proposed freeway and heading north on Hwy. 27, proceeding through Nobleton.
He asked staff to “work with the region to mitigate the north-south traffic through the village of Nobletion (along Hwy 27).”
Concerned Citizens of King Township stayed consistent in their stance along with the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance that the road is unnecessary and remains opposed to it.
The report was approved.
