London committee approves revamp to Medway Valley Forest Trail despite pushback
CBC
London's planning committee accepted a proposal to improve an entryway to the Medway Valley Forest Trail in the city's north end at a meeting Wednesday.
Jacqueline Madden is a disability advocate and a mother to a 31-year-old who uses a wheelchair. She wants the City of London to improve the entrances to the trail so that it becomes more accessible to people with disabilities.
"Our built environment has all kinds of limitations and therefore, if we get the opportunity to go somewhere and to…enjoy nature like other people get to enjoy nature, we would like to be able to do that," Madden told CBC News.
In 2005, Ontario's Legislative Assembly passed the Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act (AODA) to make the province accessible to people with disabilities by 2025.
Most of Medway Valley Forest Trail is a Level 2 trail, meaning it is flattened with gravel and made wider to make it walkable, except for one opening into the trail on Gloucester Road. That area is considered a Level 1 trail – the ground is uneven, steep and may be possibly dangerous for both walkers and people with accessibility issues, according to a report to the planning committee.
A Level 2 trail would meet the AODA requirements and provide the "least environmental impact in facilitating maintenance access to the Medway Valley trunk sanitary sewer," the report says.
But Allyson Marie Vanstone is one of the residents living in the surrounding neighbourhoods that came to Wednesday's planning meeting to oppose changes to the trail. She moved to her current home on Gloucester Road in 2015.
"I understand what the city is trying to do with opening paths and creating connectivity, but there's this little tiny cul-de-sac that has 80 homes on it, and everybody there just wants to live there the way that they've lived for 30 to 50 years," Vanstone told the planning committee on Wednesday.
Dozens of residents living near the trail submitted a petition opposing the changes in 2018.
However, now that the planning committee's approved the motion, Madden hopes Medway Valley Forest Trail is one step closer to becoming fully accessible.
"If we did it right, you could go down and wander a little bit and wouldn't that be nice?," Madden said.
The proposal will go to full council next.
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