City hall has released a list of streets that will transition to one-sided parking this year because of how narrow these roads are.
There are 35 total streets less than nine metres in width that the City of Moose Jaw wants to make one-sided so city and emergency vehicles can safely travel on them when responding to situations. This year, 16 streets will be restricted to one-sided parking, while 19 streets — all on South Hill — will be restricted next year.
The public works and utilities department will use $8,000 from its 2022 operating budget to install street signs indicating the change in parking, while another $8,000 will come from the city manager’s contingency fund for a total of $16,000.
The remaining installation work — estimated at $16,000 — will be referred to the 2023 operating budget deliberations.
The cost per sign is roughly $900 per block.
The streets suggested for completion this year include:
- 1000 block of Willow Avenue
- 1000 block of Third Avenue Northeast
- 1200 block of Third Avenue Northeast
- 1300 block of Third Avenue Northeast
- 900 block of Chestnut Avenue
- 1000 block of Chestnut Avenue
- 1100 block of Chestnut Avenue
- 900 block of Second Avenue Northeast
- 800 block of Third Avenue Northwest
- 900 block of Third Avenue Northwest
- 1000 block of Second Avenue Northwest
- 1100 block of Second Avenue Northwest
- 100 block of Redland Avenue
- 1200 block of Redland Avenue
- First leg of 1200 block of First Avenue Northwest
- First leg of 1200 block of Second Avenue Northwest
City administration presented the list of affected streets during the April 11 regular council meeting. Council unanimously voted to receive and file the report.
“It’s important for the community to know specifically which streets (are affected). I appreciate that they have been inspected already too, so we know they fall under the right criteria,” said Coun. Crystal Froese.
This year, all the affected streets are in the northwest and northeast corners of the city, while the remaining areas are on South Hill, said Fire Chief Rod Montgomery. There is also one particularly busy street that is less than nine metres in width that should be addressed but is outside this project’s scope, so city administration will bring that road to the 2023 budget discussion.
City hall plans to give residents on the affected streets a three-month heads-up before making any changes, while any issues that pop up will be reviewed and a rationale provided about why they need to be fixed, he continued.
“I don’t think we could ever get consensus when we look street by street, but we certainly want to provide people with enough time frame to let them know that this will be happening this year,” Montgomery added.
Coun. Jamey Logan agreed with the project but thought it needed to happen “as expeditiously as possible” since many streets on the list also happened to be parallel to the replacement of cast iron pipes on nearby streets.
“So, there are lots of cast iron that run north-south very close to where these streets happen to run north-south,” he added. “So, the sooner we can get this implemented, the sooner that traffic that will be avoiding the cast iron can use the one-sided street parking to go up and down the avenues.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, April 25.
