City seeking feedback for Downtown Brantford project

BRANTFORD, ON – As part of the plan to create a more attractive and sustainable Downtown core that supports increased economic development and growth, the City of Brantford is conducting a Class Environmental Assessment (EA) for Downtown streetscaping. This project focuses on improving the aboveground and underground infrastructure in the City’s core to support development, enhance opportunities for all transportation modes and increase pedestrian capacity.

The Project Team is seeking public feedback on the recommendations for the Downtown streets in the study area, with a focus on Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street extending from Brant Avenue and Icomm Drive to the junction where the streets meet. The presentation is available on the City of Brantford YouTube channel and comments and feedback will be accepted until May 27, 2021, at www.LetsTalkBrantford.ca/Downtown.

“The City is committed to offering our community as many opportunities as possible to provide feedback about this project,” says Gagan Batra, Senior Project Manager of Special Projects, City of Brantford. “Now that we have tangible options for the Downtown streets, we hope to receive comments that will help us move forward. We are designing streets for the public to use, so it is critical that we hear from the community about how they feel about our recommendations, and we are available to answer any questions people may have about them.”

Various options for the Downtown streetscaping were evaluated, including implementing two-way traffic operations on Dalhousie and Colborne Street, different compositions of bike lanes on the streets, significantly reducing the number of vehicle travel lanes, among others. After extensive review of all options, the recommended solution is to maintain one-way traffic operations on Dalhousie Street and Colborne Street, narrow the lanes to reduce the speed of vehicles, introduce a single bike lane on each street separated from the roadway moving in the same direction as vehicle traffic, expand the sidewalks, and maintain parking on one side of the street on each street.

Public engagement and community feedback are a key part of the study. The City of Brantford and the project team encourage residents to provide comments and questions on the recommended solution. Members of the public will have until May 27, 2021, at 4:30 p.m. to submit questions and comments that will be added to a Frequently Asked Questions document that will be posted to the project webpage on June 3. All questions and comments are appreciated and seriously considered by the Project Team as they move forward in the process for this study.

This summer, the Project Team will provide more details about possible new features in the Downtown including furniture, plantings, road crossings and more which will be presented at a future public meeting.

There are many ways for the public to get involved in this process. For more information about the project, to view the presentation materials or video, or to submit feedback, please visit www.LetsTalkBrantford.ca/Downtown. To reach the Project Team directly, please email cobdowntown@brantford.ca.

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Media Contact:

Stephanie Quattrociocchi | Communications Specialist, Communications and Community Engagement
City of Brantford | Office: 519.759.4150 Ext. 5533 | squattrociocchi@brantford.ca