The long-promised urbanization of Killarney Beach Road is back on track, with construction hopefully to begin in 2025.
A second public open house was held at the Morgan Russell Memorial Arena and Community Centre Nov. 14, nearly two years to the day from the project’s first open house.
Originally, construction was to be completed on the project earlier this year. Instead, only utility relocation has taken place so far.
A lot has changed, explained town community project manager Alex Papadatos, influenced in part by the consultation with residents most directly impacted and by logistics with the location of utilities in the area.
“We saw some conflicts with the south side (multi-use path) that we had in our design, which has since been deleted,” Papadatos said. “There are many, many mature trees on the south side of Killarney Beach Road that really hold something to the community. They have tales of them being planted by soldiers in the 1912s, 1915s.”
Getting community buy-in is essential for a project that has the potential to be transformative for Lefroy, which has seen its population boom over the past two decades, along with the rest of Innisfil. But the infrastructure along Killarney Beach Road hasn’t kept pace with the construction, and with even more residents set to call Lefroy their home, the upgrades are essential.
The urbanization project calls for storm sewers, a multi-use path on the north side and additional on-street parking. It’s a lot of change for a village that in 2024 still looks a lot like it did in 1994.
“My constituents are a little bit reserved; they don’t like a lot of change,” said Coun. Fred Drodge, who represents the Lefroy are on Innisfil council and was a popular fixture at the public open house.
“Every small town in Innisfil has got a different dynamic and they all have different views,” he said. “Lefroy is unique. It’s a very old town (and the residents) have been around for a long time. There’s still a lot of residents that have been here for 50-plus years and they just want to see things done the right way.”
That was something Papadatos heard loud and clear throughout the previous two years. In the time between the public open houses, he found himself regularly on the doorsteps of concerned residents where the construction would take place.
A change the town made for this meeting was noticed along the wall of the community room at the rink, overlooking the ice surface. Street addresses for Killarney Beach Road were listed above folding tables with enlarged bird’s eye view maps, giving a better example of what the impacts could be to Lefroy residents.
"At the last public open house, we had a lot of feedback, people saying ‘What’s happening in front of my house? I live at such and such address and I want to know what’s happening in front of my house,'” Papadatos said. “So, we thought it would be best to blow up roll plans and have people who have been involved in the design from the town to speak to each property owner. to be able to say, ‘Here’s your property, this what we’re doing exactly and if you have any concerns or comments, please let us know and we’re going to look into it.’”
Raina Thompson was one of those residents. She was happy with the answers she was given.
“Very informative, very knowledgeable,” she said. “What I was hoping to hear.”
She raised questions similar to many other Lefroy residents in attendance.
“Just interested in what they’re going to be doing and how they’re going to impact the next year,” Thompson said. “I wanted to know the timing, if it would be open for one lane of traffic at all times, if it was going to be paved before the snow flies.”
The feedback Papadatos was hearing was largely positive, he said. He highlighted the improvements to pedestrian safety as big wins for the project. In the designs presented at the second public open house, residents saw better lighting options along the route, as well as a traffic-calming feature to help reduce speeding along the route.
The three pedestrian crossovers added to the project were also something Papadatos felt would be a benefit to the residents of Lefroy when they needed to walk to the businesses along Killarney Beach Road or to events at Morgan Russell.
“You walk out there, you can see the current condition of the roadway and current sidewalk on the north side,” Papadatos said. “That those two are being addressed, I think will really help the community and people visiting the community."
Drodge also pointed to the sidewalks — along with some of the other infrastructure — being done well to ensure his continued support of the project.
“I just want to make sure they do all the underground stuff correctly; the stormwater needs to be done correctly so that we get all the flows correct and running the right way,” he said. “And making sure the sidewalks are wide enough that they’re multi-use, you know, making it safer for the community."
However, not everyone in the community felt sidewalks were essential to making the project a success. In fact, Dan Neville thought they’d likely make life more difficult for those currently living in Lefroy and those soon to move in.
“The solution is forget the two-metre-wide sidewalk; give it a four- or five-foot sidewalk … which is a standard city sidewalk,” he said. “Forget about these luscious borders with signs and bushes. Make it useful. Get people moving, because that’s what the problem is in Alcona, and they need more than two lanes in Alcona.”
Neville longed for the Alcona of old, which used to be a “lovely little town.” But years of development have “destroyed” the community in his opinion and made it exceptionally difficult to travel anywhere along Innisfil Beach Road.
What he saw at the second public open house could take Lefroy down that same path, with hundreds of new homes putting potentially thousands of new cars on an unnecessarily congested road.
“They’re going to spend all this cash of ours on this plan and they haven’t thought it through,” Neville said.
