The final draft of Grey County’s Cycling and Trails Master Plan is finished.
County councillors discussed and supported the plan Thursday, and it will come up for formal approval at the next council meeting.
The plan looks at the next ten years and beyond with an aim to entice walkers, hikers, cyclists, skiers, equestrians, and others to enjoy the outdoors in Grey County, thereby increasing their health and well-being.
A report presented Thursday explains it also aims to create opportunities for economic development and tourism by making Grey a leader of cycling and trails in the province. Staff plan to do that by connecting member municipalities, key destinations and surrounding regions. The County has already developed some tourism cycling routes like ‘Wineries, Cideries & Breweries by Bike,” and others which can be found on the County’s tourism website.
Some of the more immediate proposed changes include adding bike route and trail wayfinding signs in locations all over the county.
It also includes adding in some connecting paved shoulder cycling routes between existing ones in the built up areas of Meaford, Owen Sound, Thornbury, Blue Mountain Village and Hanover. The plan also recommends paved shoulders in sections throughout the county including on parts of Grey Road 18, Grey Road 40, Grey Road 2, Centre Road and a section by Cobble Beach in Georgian Bluffs, to name a few of many areas. There are also proposed routes through Kilsyth, Keady and Chatsworth.
County Tourism Manager Bryan Plumstead says one of the busier areas for cycling is around Blue Mountains and Meaford, and they’ll likely start by focusing work there. He says it also makes sense to do shoulder paving work when a particular road is up for planned maintenance and that will dictate some of the order routes are addressed in.
A staff report says the planning process included community input from trail users, community groups and municipalities. They emphasized the importance of safety and education, as well as separating cycling routes from roads with high truck traffic.
Some key recommendations in the plan include creating a cycling working group and a separate off-road trails working group, each with reps from member municipalities, partners and stakeholder groups. Plumstead notes the plan has a heavy focus on cycling, because the County received a good chunk of their funding from the province to look at adding bike lanes. “We said yes, we will do a cycling plan but we’d also like to look at tails, so the focus was always on cycling but also to broaden that out to what’s kind of like an active transportation plan which would include trails.”
Staff say coming up with risk management and liability prevention strategies will also be a priority.
Right now, the plan isn’t intended to commit the County or its municipalities to future funding or a schedule of projects, however, Thursday’s report says a general idea of estimated spending between 2020 and 2029 is $3.468 million, the bulk of which is accounted for in the County’s ten-year capital plan.
Also in the plan, is an effort to find more funding opportunities through grants, programs and external funding sources.
The 146 page final draft can be found HERE