Decades in the making, Haig Road extension delayed yet again

By Vanessa Stark

BELLEVILLE – After years of planning, the extension of Haig Road in Belleville was postponed again at Monday night’s meeting of Belleville council.

Councillors decided to delay any decision regarding the proposed expansion of Haig north to Station Street after a full gallery of Hickory Grove residents voiced concerns through a presentation given by Matthew Maguire.

Rod Bovay, the city’s director of engineering and development services, said the purpose of this extension is to divert unnecessary traffic from travelling through a subdivision to get to Station Street.

Map by Vanessa Stark

Right now the only way to get to Station from Haig Road is by taking Oak Ridge Boulevard through the subdivision, up Farley Avenue to Station Street.

Currently, Haig Road ends at the intersection of Oak Ridge and Tessa boulevards. The city is proposing to extend Haig north while also extending Station Street east for the two roads to meet, allowing traffic to bypass the subdivision. But this would cut through a portion of the Hickory Grove residents’ backyards.

Maguire, a Hickory Grove resident, presented council with a petition signed by 45 residents. Should the extension be built, “residents feel that there would be a decline in property value, as houses that back onto green space are worth more than those that back onto roads,” Maguire said.

“Many residents will be disturbed by the sound and lights of cars, trucks and snowplows going past their bedrooms at all hours – not to mention that the LED street lamps will make it feel like daytime all the time.”

Councillors asked city staff to provide possible alternatives and details of what the extension project will include at the next council meeting, in March.

Bovay told QNet News that the plan to extend Haig dates back to the 1980s, at the time the subdivision was being built by eight different contractors. As the project progressed, however, the contractors couldn’t decide how to divide the cost of extending the road north to Station Street, he said.

In 2003, the city took on the project and instituted an area-specific property-development charge, Bovay said. So every time a building permit was taken out in the area, the developer had to make a payment to the city toward the road extension. This meant that the title on these properties states that the extension would be built, he said.

In 2015, an environmental assessment on the area was completed and a public information session was held at which residents could voice concerns. Bovay said many Oak Ridge Boulevard residents attended the meeting in support of the Haig Road extension, allowing for traffic to be diverted away from the subdivision and their street.

Asked what the possible alternatives might might be, he said: “There really aren’t any feasible alternatives. The deputation at council suggested the road be diverted to the east. Well, there is environmentally sensitive land to the east, so that’s probably impossible. And practically all that does is put it in someone else’s backyard.”