The Village Inn’s proposal to close a portion of Simcoe Road for the month of August has come up flat after the idea could not drum up enough support at the council table.
During the committee-of-the-whole portion of their meeting on May 3, Bradford West Gwillimbury councillors recommended keeping the status quo for the four corners this summer, with the hopes that town staff could continue to work with the Village Inn to find other suitable alternatives that didn’t involve shutting down a main road for at least three weeks.
The town received a letter from Village Inn owner Stephen Dykie in early April requesting the closure, as to make a patio operation viable for the licenced establishment, it needed a greater area than currently available on his property or through the town’s current patio program.
In the interim, staff canvassed the neighbourhood and received feedback from five impacted businesses. Four of them, as stated in the report on the request, supported the closure. Three of those indicated they would be keen to utilize some of the space created by cordoning off Simcoe Road, between Mary Street and Holland Street, with one indicating its support was contingent on being included.
The Village Inn, staff indicated, was not requesting exclusive use of the space, and “would welcome participation from other business.”
In opposition to the closure was Skwarchuk Funeral Home, which provided a formal letter to council urging the town to deny the request.
“Our business provides a service to those who are in mourning and wish for a safe, respectable, and quiet place in order to say goodbye to their loved ones. With the event and the road closure scheduled unfortunately we cannot confidently say that we can provide this space for them,” the letter from owner William Skwarchuk stated. “We and many businesses alike have endured a lot of interference, disruptions, and disrespect with events similar and road closures, but this will be too much strain on all of us with little benefit for anybody except for the proprietor requesting the road closure.”
South Simcoe Police Service are also opposed to closing the road for a month, the staff report indicated.
Following comments from Coun. Peter Ferragine, Coun. Ron Orr and Coun. Raj Sandhu that all spoke to their empathy for the Village Inn’s situation, but ultimately couldn’t support a full month-long road closure, Mayor Rob Keffer put forward the option to keep things as the status quo.
“It’s a little bit too hard for the rest of our residents,” the mayor said. “There would be some hardships that some of our residents would feel if this street was closed for three weeks or a month.”
The debate was taking place in the shadow of the second series of Public Information Centres on the Holland Street Environmental Assessment, which took place April 28. During those sessions, the preferred designs for the transformation of the Holland St. corridor were showcased.
Those sessions and a survey on the proposals remain on the town’s website and will be used in the development of the proposal coming before council in June.
The outdoor space problems faced by the Village Inn that led them to request a month-long closure would be solved by the Holland Street project, argued Coun. Jonathan Scott, who also chairs the Downtown Revitalization Committee.
He was opposed to the status quo option and ultimately joined Coun. Peter Dykie in voting against the recommendation. If anything, the Village Inn’s request to shut down the entire street for a month could be used as a test case for what can happen in a transformed downtown.
“I’d love to try something,” Scott said. “I think there’s a lot of benefiting to experimenting and getting more foot traffic into the downtown. Not making the downtown be just a vehicular artery, but letting it be a downtown again.”
In his original letter to council, Stephen Dykie alluded to the Holland Street project and the hardship it could cause businesses during the construction phase. He also questioned council’s priorities for downtown, if they were to say no to his request.
“Should this request be denied, the Town of Bradford should strongly reconsider whether or not the Holland Street Reconstruction project is still viable,” he wrote. “If the Town can't pass a simple street closure bylaw to assist struggling businesses with very minimal costs to the community then why should the town spend millions on reconstruction if, at the end of construction, the town fails to implement the recommendations of studies for more events?”
Coun. Dykie – also a downtown business owner and cousin of the Village Inn’s proprietor – took the debate in another direction when he echoed those statements.
“What is the benefit of doing Holland Street at the end of the day, other than the new sewer pipes?” Coun. Dykie asked. “Taking all the parking away and doing bump-outs, we have to take a look at that. Either provide more opportunities for different businesses that have these patios, or cut back and leave the status quo and look at the budget.”
The recommendation to maintain the status quo passed with a 5-2 vote. The direction of council implied that staff continue to work with businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the downtown on solutions, such as utilizing the current patio program.
Under that program, two of the four lanes of Simcoe Road between Holland Street and Mary Street could be closed for the entire summer.
