A Northridge resident is trying to mobilize his neighbours to fight back against city hall’s plans to build the third leg of Ray Gibbon Drive so close to their houses.
Richard VanGrinsven has lived on Napoleon Crescent since 2007. He says that when he and some of his neighbours moved into the community, they were told by the contractors who built their homes Ray Gibbon Drive would, at its closest point, come no closer than 300 metres to their back doors.
Now that situation has changed. VanGrinsven received a letter on April 15 that indicates the stage three work — expanding Ray Gibbon Drive from Giroux Road to Villeneuve Road — will bring the road much closer to his home: within 50 metres.
“What they have successfully done in reducing these measurements is they’ve really made these homes unsellable and driven down our property values,” VanGrinsven said.
His main problem isn’t with the stage three extension; VanGrinsven is more concerned about the future, as the province has tapped Ray Gibbon Drive to become the new Highway 2. When that times comes, and the road that is now two lanes is widened to highway standards and the speed limits are increased as a result, VanGrinsven says the living situation in his neighbourhood will become unbearable.
“It will become an extension of the Henday and is proposed to be an eight-lane highway in the next 10 years. When that happens, we’ll have speeds of 110 kilometres an hour or greater and it will be the main central hub for transport trucks.”
VanGrinsven has called the city, the minister of transport, the premier’s office and his MLA, all to no avail. One city planner told him there might be new meetings on the subject open to the public, but nothing has been confirmed.
Guy Boston, St. Albert’ general manager of planning and engineering, says an open house could be a possibility if the city makes any changes to stage three of Ray Gibbon Drive before its construction begins, which he expects sometime next year. He disputes VanGrinsven’s math, saying the road will be about 80 metres from Napoleon Crescent. He acknowledged the original plan for North Ridge, drafted in 1998, showed the road running right up against some back yards, but that has since changed.
As Ray Gibbon Drive is an arterial road, Boston said it will be built to the city’s arterial road standards, which will include berms and trees alongside the road as sound attenuation measures. Any decision to expand the road to its eight-lane Highway 2 future will be made by the province, he explained, meaning it and not the city will be responsible for consulting with affected home and business owners.
In the meantime, VanGrinsven says he will continue to try to mobilize his neighbours to try to put a little more distance between them and a potential traffic nightmare running next to his backyard.
“Anywhere else on the Henday, there are no subdivisions close to the road at all,” he said. “If Edmonton and other areas can be responsible, why can’t St. Albert?”
