A large natural area at the emergency services facility being built on Fairview Road will be off limits to the public and it doesn’t look like there will be any pedestrian connections through the back of the property, city councillors were told Monday night.
Coun. Barry Ward said when the project was in its early stages last year, he asked about a pedestrian link to Mollard Court, which is located behind the property, accessible off Bayview Drive, and could allow for better access to nearby transit routes.
Jessica Liefl, the city’s manager of facilities and planning development, said the design does not include a pedestrian link due to security concerns with the property. Because it's police headquarters, the entire site will be cordoned off with a six-foot fence, she said.
“This is a secure, first-responders campus site and there is a secure perimeter,” said Liefl, who noted additional security measures would be required to allow for pedestrians to pass through the site.
“OK, I guess we have to fix that somehow,” said Ward, adding the new police station isn’t located near any bus routes and a pedestrian link to Mollard Court would create a short walk to a bus stop, “which is within easy walking distance of Bayview. So what do we have to do to get a pedestrian access there?”
Liefl said with the current design, there would be no need for pedestrians to move through the site, nor would any civilian vehicles be permitted to drive behind the police station.
“There are two controlled and secure access points for all staff or anyone who’s cleared or permitted,” she said. “There is a substantial amount of police property within the fenced area in the parking, and this was a requirement with the police headquarters.”
Ward asked city staff for more information on the security aspect of the emergency services campus.
“Pedestrians would be people going there to get a police check or the people that work there,” he said. “I don’t imagine every single person that works for the police has a driver’s licence and has a car, so there might be people that might want to get there from Mollard Court.”
As it pertains to city transit and addressing Ward’s concern, Rebecca James-Reid, the city’s executive director with Access Barrie, said revisions to bus routes will be reviewed in the new year.
Ward said “that’s not very satisfactory” when a short pedestrian path could be built to connect to an existing transit route.
Ward also raised the prospect of sidewalks to the emergency services campus.
Liefl said sidewalks would extend from Little Avenue south to the property’s north entrance, which would be used for public vehicular access. However, beyond the north entrance, she said sidewalks “are not in the project scope.”
Mayor Jeff Lehman said he has also heard inquiries from people looking for connections to city transit routes from the ONRoute location along Highway 400 near Essa Road and located directly across Fairview Road from the emergency services facility.
“There’s a surprising number of employees at the ONRoute facility and many of them do walk all the way down to Little Avenue right now to catch the bus,” Lehman said.
James-Reid said a transit report coming to city council in the new year will address the ONRoute, adding they could possibly meet the timeline of having changes in place by the campus opening in 2020.
