Council has decided snowplows will do the heavy lifting by removing windrows from in front of residential driveways this winter.
On Monday, city council passed changes to the Integrated & Accessible Transportation Policy that will see windrows from front driveways cleared by city crews, who will move the snow to windrows on the remainder of the street.
The move will increase the height of windrows and may affect on-street parking.
“In my view, we’ve traded a windrow problem for a parking problem,” said Mayor Tara Veer.
“Obviously none of us like windrows. The concern is that the trade-off for clearing windrows from the driveways is piling more snow on both sides of the street.”
She said the city heard a substantial number of complaints about windrows in front of driveways last year, but complaints depended on the size of windrows. Some windrows were small and people could just drive over them.
But council decided to go back to the old model of clearing windrows from driveways.
An amendment proposed by Veer for city crews to not clear windrows from driveways was defeated at council six to two, with Veer and Coun. Tanya Handley voting in favour.
Coun. Ken Johnston also put forward an amendment that would have seen city crews remove windrows from front driveways and take the snow and ice away so it would be not be added to windrows on the street.
City administration estimated that would cost an extra $1 million if required four times this winter
Johnston said that amounted to only $48 more a year for taxpayers, which was an extraordinary value.“I think it is affordable and I think it does add to the quality of life, convenience and safety, especially for seniors,” Johnston said.“Windrows are public enemy No. 1 in our city.”
Council voted seven to one against dumping driveway windrows elsewhere.Coun. Lynne Mulder said residents don’t want higher taxes. But many contacted her when windrows in front of their driveways contained big, heavy chunks of ice.
“A lot of people said, ‘I can’t move that ice myself,’” Mulder said.
Coun. Dianne Wyntjes also favoured removing windrows from driveways after hearing from residents like seniors or people with disabilities, as well as those “after a hard day’s work having to shovel through those windrows” to get to their driveway.
In the end, council voted unanimously in favour of the group of four recommendations made by the city’s governance and policy committee, which included clearing windrows in front of driveways and three other changes:
• Residential streets (grey routes) and collectors, transit routes and residential streets adjacent to schools (green routes) will be plowed within 15 days of a 10 cm snow pack. It will improve operational efficiencies and allow green and grey routes to be completed in each snow zone at the same time.
• Public sidewalks will be cleared within three days of a snow event.
• Industrial and commercial areas (orange routes) may be plowed sooner than the 15-cm snow pack trigger when it makes sense to do so.
Veer said the new changes to snow clearing that eliminate differences in service between grey and green routes, as well as quicker snow clearing for public sidewalks, are both positive and highly responsive to public feedback.
“The city has had a long-standing inequity in terms of snow removal policy on public sidewalks. We expect our residents to shovel their sidewalks within 48 hours or they are ticketed by bylaw. The city previously didn’t have a standard and than last year we had a standard at eight days. Now this year we’ll have a standard of three days so we’re closing the differential between what we expect our of our citizenry and what we’re doing as a public service,” Veer said.
The city’s snow and ice program was launched last winter and set out triggers and targets for snow plowing to be phased in over two years.
Last year, more than 10,000 vehicles were left on the street during snow clearing, which drastically slowed down operations. Warnings were issued to vehicle owners to allow them to get used to the program.
This year, vehicle owners will get a $75 ticket, and if the vehicle needs to be towed that will cost them about another $50. Residents can find out about their snow zone and route at www.reddeer.ca/snowzone.