Councillors in Amherstburg will be discussing the wide-ranging Transportation Master Plan at their regular meeting on Monday.
They will be considering several recommendations or directions regarding the plan, the main ones being: a Proposed Downtown Slow Zone, Simcoe Street/Meloche Road Intersection Improvements, Curb Bump Outs, Downtown Parking, Murray Street Closure - Ramsey Street to Dalhousie Street, and Traffic Policy/Traffic Calming Procedures
Back in 2022, Amherstburg contracted TYLin International Canada Inc. to complete the master plan.
It's a long-term strategic planning document aiming to guide transportation policies, programs, and infrastructure planning in the municipality for the foreseeable future.
The plan outlines vision, goals, and policies and serves as a blueprint for guiding transportation-related decision-making and investment over a defined time frame, typically ranging from 10 to 30 years.
Recommendations and projects in the plan will serve as a basis for future transportation investments, policies, and initiatives.
Councillor Linden Crain says a number of public open houses, surveys, and traffic studies have been completed to come up with the master plan they'll be voting on today.
Crain gave a break down of the main priorities in the plan in greater detail.
"The first is approving the plan. The second would be to institute a 30km/h slow zone in the town core. The third being completing short term intersection improvements at Simcoe and Meloche road by the Libro Arena. Number four, instituting a full closure of Murray Street between downtown Dalhousie and Ramsey," he explained.
He says a lot of research has been done to get this plan completed, and he believes there's merit to a lot of the recommendations.
"We've definitely been receiving feedback from the community over the past few weeks. The Murray Street project will be interesting, I think there's a lot of potential there to create a pedestrian only zone in that area to promote walkability and encourage people to visit the store fronts."
Crain says the hope is that some parts of the plan can help alleviate congestion in certain areas, as part of the planning involved studying which areas tend to experience delays and which don't.
He added there really wasn't a spot at the centre of the town that had an extreme delay marker on the map that TYLin created in the plan.
"The biggest thing that caught my attention if we're look at delays would actually be the collisions section. So on Sandwich Street there was about seven collisions that took place on one of the corners, and at Sandwich and Alma there was six. We have to be mindful of the number of collisions taking place," he said.
Amherstburg's 2024 Capital budget includes $200,000 for master plan related engineering and projects.
The immediate works being recommended within the report to council can be addressed with these funds, according to administration, but all future projects would need to be incorporated into future budgets at council's discretion.
Council meets at 6 p.m. tonight.