It looks like Chatham-Kent Council won't be going down that road after all.
Council members voted 6-12 against including a review of King Street in the Transportation Master Plan -- but solutions for parking downtown will still be investigated.
"As part of the Downtown Master Plan, we were planning on undertaking a parking review looking at spaces and how parking is distributed downtown," said General Manager of Infrastructure and Engineering Services Edward Soldo.
Original article was published on June 19, 2024.
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Chatham-Kent could be looking at adding more parking and limiting traffic to one direction in Chatham's downtown core if a municipal councillor's motion gets enough support Monday night.
At the June 10 council meeting, Ward 6 Councillor Conor Allin, put forth a notice of motion about looking into reconfiguring portions King Street in downtown Chatham. That motion is set to come before Council for discussion and a vote on June 24.
Allin's request is for municipal staff to bring back a report on the possibility of introducing angled parking along some sections of King Street and making those areas one-way streets.
"At least with angled parking, it looks to double or possibly even triple the parking downtown for just the regular businesses," said Allin. "I know that's always been a constant issue with new businesses coming downtown -- where are people going to park."
Allin said putting this motion forth allows Chatham to be proactive in the future of an evolving downtown.
"I'm putting forward this motion now so that administration can look into the feasibility of doing it if it even makes sense for us to do it... I wanted to kickstart this so we aren't behind the eight ball in case this is a good idea. Everything can move in one ebb and flow going forward," said Allin.
Allin said the library would also benefit from the additional parking, an issue he said has come up from his time on the library board.
"This helps that issue a little bit and in hopes it can bring more people to our downtown core," said Allin.
Safety is also a factor in the motion. Allin said it's much easier for seniors to navigate crossing a street that is limited to one-way traffic.
"It's a lot easier for people to look one way than have to go back and forth. Also just the flow of traffic," said Allin. "Speeding has been a common thing in our downtown area, people whipping around corners, with one-way traffic, it actually impedes the flow of traffic when you look at studies that have been done. So this hopefully calms down traffic in a way as well to make it easier for people in our downtown core."