Today, the west end of Maple Grove Road is just a dead-end dumping ground for construction waste and dog poop bags. Someday, it could be a road connection to Stittsville Main Street.
It’s an idea that’s been talked about for several years, and it shows up from time to time on planning maps, but there’s no specific timeline.
It came up recently during the discussions about Minto’s Potter’s Key subdivision. Some homeowners in Jackson Trails have suggested that Maple Grove could provide a second exit from their community, although many residents don’t want it opened up just yet.
The city’s planning department shared some information about their plans for Maple Grove as part of a background document on the proposal to close part of Johnwoods. There’s no specific timeline, but based on their summary my best guess is that it will be at least a decade before Maple Grove connects all the way to Stittsville Main.
Here’s what the planning department says:
- Maple Grove is intended to be part of the local street network, and not part of the major road network. As such, the construction of this is a function of the development of adjacent land parcels that will ultimately require access for roads and services.
- Connecting Stittsville Main Street ahead of the extension to Highway 417 will result in a significant increase of traffic on Stittsville Main Street and Maple Grove.
- Stittsville Main Street is designated as a major collector, and is part of the major road network for the City. It is intended to be extended north to Highway 417 in Phase 3 of the Transportation Master Plan (2025-2031) with exact timing depending upon development occurring in the Kanata West Town Centre area.
- Future traffic increases on Maple Grove, with or without a connection to Stittsville Main Street, will need to be coordinated with improvements to the intersection at Maple Grove and Huntmar. This intersection is currently proposed for upgrading after 2018.
A rough translation from planning language to English: If you were to open up Maple Grove to Jackson Trails today, it would be like opening up the traffic floodgates. You’d have a torrent of cars driving through Jackson Trails and Fairwinds. Best to wait until Stittsville Main Street gets connected to Palladium, sometime between 2025-2031, because that will be a more convenient route to the Queensway than using Maple Grove. Oh, and we need to get that Huntmar-Maple Grove intersection figured out first.
In the meantime, maybe planners could consider a paved bike path connecting from Maple Grove all the way to Carp Road? There’s a gravel or dirt path for most of the way now, but a more permanent path would be a great way to link the neighbourhoods of Echowoods, Potter’s Key, Jackson Trails, Bryantson Gate and Fairwinds.
So what are the residents of the Fairwinds community area to do throughout the entire hockey season and all the event nights in order to get home? With the closure of Johnswoods the entire community will suffer needlessly with long commute times as they can no longer get through Johnwoods and Huntmar has the medians preventing access through the residential roads… This poor planning is both unacceptable and ridiculous not to mention dangerous as the police station is essentially cut off of these times and emergency services will take much longer to access the area putting lives at risk potentially. I would like to know who is responsible for these bad decisions and why are they still working for my city?
I’m more concerned about lanfill expansion next to it. Property value. Polution. Health.