A former city councillor is speaking out against a proposed pilot project for Windsor's Ward 4.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, former ward 4 councillor Chris Holt says he opposes the idea to allow front yard driveways in the ward.
He says the project would drastically impact the ward's neighbourhood characteristics and its appearance.
Holt also believes there will be conflict between pedestrians and motorists leaving their driveways as well as the loss of trees and green space in some neighbourhoods.
"We can't look at this one issue in a bubble," says Holt. "We have existing plans, master plans for the entire City of Windsor that this goes against. "It goes against our climate change adaptation plan, it goes against our environment plan. It even to a certain degree goes against our transportation planning for the entire city."
He feels the project will negatively impact the ward and will cost neighbourhoods on street parking spots.
"We're talking about properties that are 30 feet wide," says Holt. "You cannot fit a driveway in between homes that are built on 30 foot wide property. You barely have a sidewalk that goes between. What we're talking about is paving front yards, installing curb cuts into what has for the last 100 years been an uninterrupted pedestrian walkway in the front. These sidewalks on Windermere, Lincoln, Gladstone they don't have any driveways cutting through them and you can see the way the neighbourhood has embraced that."
Holt believes the proposal will affect the neighbourhood 'long term.'
"The idea that this is a pilot project is false," says Holt. "Once the city allows for that two year pilot project, a curb cut and a paving of a front yard we are never going back from that."
As AM800 news reported last week, the city's Environment, Transportation & Public Safety Standing Committee approved a two-year pilot project to allow front yard driveways in ward 4.
Current ward 4 councillor Mark McKenzie said it's an issue he's been hearing from residents about and has been pushing for front yard driveways for about a year.
He said if the pilot project is approved by city council, residents would be allowed to apply and construct a front yard driveway if it's safe and makes sense to do so.