York Region adds 2 km of accessible trail, announces nine more shovel-ready projects
yongestreetmedia.ca
March 5, 2014
The first project, two kilometres of accessible trail in North Tract, in the Town of East Gwillimbury, will be completed this summer. And while there's no official timeline for the remaining seven kilometres, Ian Buchanan, manager of forestry with the York Region, anticipates they'll be completed in a timely fashion in the next few years.
"These projects are all 'shovel-ready.' We have the guidelines, we have detailed designs ready to go. It's just subject to timing and funding."
It might not sound like much, but says Buchanan, getting to the "shovel-ready" point involved years of research, trial and error, and the creation of a set of accessibility guidelines.
It all started in 2008 when the York Regional Council's accessibility committee requested that staff review opportunities for creating accessible forest trails.
"The idea," explains Buchanan, "was to look at how we could go that extra mile to share the experience of the York Regional forest with more of the residents of the York Region."
Buchanan and his team started by looking to the province's draft Built Environment Standard for Ontarians with Disabilities, a piece of draft legislation that flowed from the 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Among other things, the provincial standard laid out requirements for maximum slopes, suitable trail surface conditions, minimum trail widths and signage requirements.
"We studied those guidelines through 2009 and 2010," says Buchanan. "We had quite a process in those two years including a lot of education for staff about what the Accessible Draft Plan was, about what the reality was, where the needs were.
"In 2010 we brought our ideas to council and they endorsed a pilot project plan for a 1 km loop of accessible trail that was built to the draft standard."
Through surveys and monitoring, Buchanan and his team noticed that not only were more people using the trail, but that groups who might not otherwise feel comfortable walking in the natural environment, including the elderly or parents with strollers, were at ease using the accessible path.
The pilot project was so successful, that the York Region decided to expand its accessible path program.
Based on now updated Ontario regulation, the York Regional Forest office worked with council's accessibility advisory committee to develop regionally specific accessibly guidelines, guidelines that were passed by council in late 2013.
But, says Buchanan, having a plan for how to build a path was only half the battle. The other half, was figuring out where to put it.
"Finding the right location can be tricky, there's always a balance between minimizing the environmental footprint and maximizing the user experience. You have to find that sweet spot."
That's why, he says, it so great to finally be "shovel ready."
"All we have to do now is build."
