Getting to the Harte of it

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This article was published 25/01/2016 (3770 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Charleswood residents are worried that a planned roadway extension could permanently disrupt their lives.

Still in the study phase, the William R. Clement Parkway (WRCP) extension is being met with a mixture of concerns. Residents attended the Parkway Open House at Charleswood United Church (4820 Roblin Blvd.) on Jan. 19 to learn more about how their neighbourhood might change.

The WRCP extension is proposed to cut through the existing dog park at 4000 Grant Ave. and continue south to meet and extend past Wilkes Avenue.

Charleswood resident Jeannette Wiebe said she doesn’t want to see the Harte Trail impacted by an additional roadway.

“I don’t want that to be disturbed,” she said. “It’s historic, it’s just beautiful. I run and walk down that trail. It goes to the Perimeter and connects to Fort Whyte, it’s just gorgeous. It’s nature.”

Charleswood’s Len Van Roon said he bikes from his area to the Manitoba Museum (190 Rupert Ave.) five days a week during warmer weather and sees the connectivity potential of the WRCP. However, he also has concerns about the proposed options.

“The connections for nature and active transportation seem to be an afterthought,” Van Roon said. According to him, adding an intersection to Harte Trail between Fairmont Road and Elmhurst Road will significantly reduce the path’s safety.

“If you’ve got 14,000 cars crossing two blocks away and three blocks away, that will be deadly for people on bikes, animals and people walking. It will destroy the Harte Trail,” he said. “What’s the point of having a beautiful crossing there or even a half-adequate one if you go two blocks away and you have a killing ground?”

Regardless of where the intersection is placed, the WRCP will cross the trail. City transportation facilities planning engineer Scott Suderman said that the City is looking at ways to preserve the trail and is relying on community feedback.

“We will either construct a bridge over or perhaps have a through-pass that will go under, so we really want to get feedback on which is the best way to maintain that,” Suderman said.

Suderman was also asked many questions by worried property owners. Regardless of which of the three options is chosen, the WRCP will displace a segment of the community. Still in its preliminary stages, the plan doesn’t include details on what will happen to homeowners whose properties are in potential construction areas.

“A similar project would be the Kenaston widening, Route 90 between Ness and Taylor,” Suderman said. “We talked to (property owners) and explained why we were taking the properties and we provided the opportunity that if they chose to want to sell their property, then the city would entertain that… it’s a short-term project, we have a lot of other large priorities.”

Residents living in the potential roadway’s path aren’t the only ones worried about how Charleswood may change.

“We live on McDowell Drive so we back out onto this extension. It will impact our backyard,” Luba Krosney said. “I do think the overall feeling of Charleswood that we know as a community will change substantially. The country feel that attracted us to live there to begin with is going to completely change, so it’s sad, actually.”

“It wasn’t just a subdivision of new homes going up,” her husband Bill added. “The appeal that Charleswood had for many is going to radically change, I think.”

For the Krosneys, knowing about the possibility of the extension for some time doesn’t make it any easier to contend with. They added that they would like to see what will be done to reduce noise levels.