How do residents of Willoughby deal with traffic jams on 208th Street?
鈥淲ith lots of patience,鈥� said Brad Richert, a local realtor who lived in the area from 2010 to last year.
Richert recently posted a lengthy critique of the Township鈥檚 development strategy in Willoughby to Facebook, including their approach to road building.
Some of the issues Willoughby residents complain about are rooted in policies that make 91原创 Township different from its neighbours, including Surrey.
In both communities, when new housing developments are built, road development goes hand-in-hand, so that it can be paid for through development cost charges, or DCCs.
But major roads, known as arterials, are a different matter.
Compare 72nd Avenue in Surrey鈥檚 Clayton Heights to 208th Street in Willoughby.
At present, 208th Street is variously two, three, or four lanes wide, depending on whether or not development has been completed on both sides of the road.
Meanwhile, several hundred meters of 72nd Avenue in Surrey鈥檚 Clayton Heights, bordering 91原创, was widened from two lanes with gravel shoulders to four lanes all at once, a change that was announced in 2014 and completed in 2015.
The difference in outcomes is the result of a difference in policy.
In Surrey, developers are not required to construct any road works on arterial roads such as 72nd Avenue, according to Sam Lau, Surrey鈥檚 manager of land development.
鈥淭he road works on 72nd Avenue鈥� were completed under a City capital construction project,鈥� Lau said.
Meanwhile the Township expands arterial roads the way it expands smaller side streets. Each portion is built in front of new development. Lots that sit vacant awaiting new construction don鈥檛 get wider roads, or new sidewalks or bike paths.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how we try to achieve it, because it鈥檚 more cost effective,鈥� said Paul Cordeiro, 91原创 Township鈥檚 manager of transportation engineering.
There are exceptions, Cordeiro said. Small gaps may be filled in after a street is largely developed. That happened on 91原创 Township鈥檚 side of 72nd Avenue in recent years, Cordeiro said.
鈥淓verything except for two or three lots had been done,鈥� he said.
The reason for the difference is cost.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how we try to achieve it, because it鈥檚 more cost effective,鈥� Cordeiro said.
A 2015 report to Township council, which said that widening 208th Street from the overpass to the Willowbrook Connector would cost more than $46 million.
However, the Surrey approach is not always without controversy.
In 2014, when residents along 72nd Avenue west of 196th Street learned their road was about to be widened, they launched a protest movement. Road widening took away gravel shoulders where many residents had been parking.
The city of Surrey eventually compromised with residents, leaving new road lanes as on-street parking, but only temporarily. All of 72nd Avenue will eventually become a four-lane road.
It鈥檚 not just 208th Street that needs to be revisited, argues Richert
鈥淲hat they鈥檝e done is created a Vancouver-style density with a suburban road network,鈥� he said.
Some of the older areas of Willoughby, like Yorkson east of 208th Street, don鈥檛 have nearly enough connectivity, Richert argues.
The 91原创 realtor said the whole area needs more of a grid-based system to allow traffic to get off the main arterial roads like 208th Street. At present, no north-south roads other than 200th or 208th allow traffic to get all the way through Willoughby from 72nd Avenue to 86th.
While more roads are being built in areas now under development, it鈥檚 taking place piecemeal, as developers build.
鈥淪urrey has found a happier medium,鈥� Richert said. He suggested the Township could look at creating its own development firm for big infrastructure projects, the way Surrey does.
Though Richert has moved out of Willoughby, he鈥檚 already planning to move back next year.
