Carleton Place launches Affordable Housing Grant program
At the Jan 25th meeting of Carleton Place council’s committee of the whole, councillors voted to approve their Affordable Housing Grant program. Grants of up to $5K will be available to property owners building an accessory dwelling or granny flat or additional residential unit as they’re referred to in the town’s proposal. The structures can be free-standing or attached to an existing build or be located in a renovated garage providing all current land-use regulations and bylaws are followed. There are currently few examples of this type of housing in Carleton Place and it’s hoped that this grant program might get more property owners to consider the option. The program will now go to the next full council meeting for ratification.
New detour reminder
With the town’s central bridge being closed on Jan 24th and not expected to reopen until late this fall, one of the river-crossing detours is causing some concern. Deputy Mayor Sean Redmond reported that he had used the Gillies Bridge route several times on Tuesday and noted that there were a handful of drivers going the wrong way on what is now a one-way northbound route. The Gillies Bridge at McArthur Island (often referred to as the back bridge) received its own rehabilitation and was reopened at the same time the central bridge was closed. Town-hall staff made the decision to sign it as one-way only to ensure emergency vehicles would have less trouble getting across. Motorists are reminded that Gillies is now a one-way northbound route and pedestrians are urged to use the Ottawa Valley Recreational Trail Bridge instead due to the lack of a normal-width sidewalk on the Gillies Bridge. The trail’s bridge is only a few meters upstream and now has improved access to Mill Street on the south side.
Another detour draws a petition
With the central bridge now closed for most of the remainder of this year, the only other two crossings (at McNeely Avenue and Hwy 7) are expected to see a lot more traffic. One of them is accessed through the Townline Road West and Hwy 7 intersection that has no traffic lights and is in an 80 km/h speed zone. A local resident living on the north side of the river started an online petition in late November to urge policy makers to install a set of lights. That petition, (found at change.org by searching for Townline Road W and Hwy 7) has earned over 1,300 signatures. The central bridge project manager Dave Young told council back in December that MTO, which has jurisdiction over the intersection, stated that their traffic counts indicated no signals were required. Young told council he was going to try to get MTO to do new counts now that the central bridge is out of commission and traffic is increasing at that intersection.
