There may be alternatives to opening Bathurst
Editorial

The proposal to open up the northern stretch of Bathurst Street, north of Green Lane, is still a work in progress. Thus it's a little premature for us to pass judgement on the idea.

That being said, it was hard not to be impressed with the arguments put forth last week against the reopening.

This section has been closed to vehicles since the mid-1990s, and anyone who has ever seen the terrain up there knows why that step was taken. Indeed, we would submit that a lot of work will be needed before most of us would take cars we care about through an area like that.

But York Region has started an environmental assessment aimed at determining if the road could be opened up again, with the main aim being to take some of the pressure of the intersection at Green Lane and Yonge Street. And one has to assume these folks in the Region's employ know what they are doing. If they think such a project is doable, then professional courtesy, if nothing else, means they have to at least get the chance to demonstrate that.

And local residents have the right to object.

Often in case like this, it's easy to dismiss the naysayers as being motivated by NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), and we're not yet ready to remove that concept from the discussion. But we were impressed with some of the points lawyer James Harbell, who is acting for some of the residents, brought before Township council last week.

One of the points, which Mayor Margaret Black conceded could stop this EA process in its tracks, deals with the fact that King Township might own part of the road allowance that's being studied.

But even beyond that, there were a couple of good points raised, such as the suggestions that if traffic is allowed to go all the way north to Bathurst's intersection with Yonge, there's still going to be a woeful intersection, just a different one. Traffic problems, while possibly reduced to some extent, will still be largely shifted a couple of miles to the north. Bathurst ends at that point, and there don't seem to be a lot of possibilities to extend it anywhere.

So we are inclined to agree with calls that the study area was too narrow.

Another thing to consider is the proposed relocation of Holland Marsh District Christian School, to a location on Bathurst, just north of the closed off portion of the road. Let us not forget there were a number of people living around there who were not too pleased to have a new school in the neighbourhood. We can't help wondering what they might think of this development. For that matter, what's the school community going to think?

The municipal officials in our employ are always charged with, among other things, looking for the best ways to move traffic, always taking critical factors like potential growth into account. But vigilance on behalf of the public is an important part of the process. And we're seeing that come into play.

We're not yet ready to declare the opponents are right, but they have raised some good points that had better be carefully studied and addressed before construction starts.