Residents had a chance to give input on what the official plan should focus on.
About a dozen people looked at the various displays at the city’s official plan open house on Wednesday. The displays were set up in the auditorium of the Waverly Public Library and broke down some of the main areas of the official plan into 15 categories.
Some of the categories included bridges, public transit, open space, roads, trails, sidewalks and bike lanes.
Those in attendance had the chance to rate them from very important to not important.
Don Inglis wanted to do something with the sidewalks on West Frederica Street. He said sidewalks and safety is his number one priority.
“There’s a potential ditch there because (the sidewalk) is full of water now but it is still being accessed by 80 per cent of the people on the 300 block,” Inglis said.
“I’m trying to let the city know about it. There was a petition 26 years ago and it seems to have fallen through the cracks.”
He said he’s positive that they will have the sidewalk fixed and has already heard news that 2013 would be the near that it would be done.
But not everyone focused on infrastructure.
Ryan Leblanc wanted to voice his concerns about the city’s green spaces. He said William’s bog off the highway near the Parkdale subdivision has started to deteriorate. Half the bog has already been turned into a neighbourhood and he said he’s concerned that the same will happen with the rest of the bog.
“William’s bog is my priority because I do a lot of hiking in there as well as photography of native orchids,” Leblanc said. “William’s bog is very rich with orchids there’s 14 species in there and some are rare. I’m just saddened that they could disappear.”
Leblanc said he’s not sure that the city will listen to him as they tend to have their attention on higher demand projects such as roads. But he said he would continue to voice out against the bog disappearing.
Leslie McEachern, manager of the city’s planning division, said they wanted to give residents a chance to give the official plan some guidance.
Often the public give their input after the plan is made so the city decided to give people a chance to voice their opinions on what they think the city should focus on, she said.
“We really want to get some public feedback and some comments about the community’s values around those pieces of infrastructure and we’re going to use that to develop the city’s policies and official plan,” McEachern said.
“It’s really important that the document reflect the needs and the vision of the residents of the community.”
City council previously approved additional funding for infrastructure and McEachern said that will help them work on more projects throughout the year.
She suspected that roads would continue to be the public biggest concern.
“The road infrastructure is very important and it’s something that almost every resident uses on a daily basis so people can really relate to that because it is something they see and use every day,” she said.
The next open house will be held on Thursday at the Thunder Bay 55 Plus Centre at 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.
