Residents in a Turner Valley subdivision have less than a week before a road closes that provided them direct access to Black Diamond, despite months of battling to keep it open.
Turner Valley town crews will open the extension of Royalite Way SE south to 16th Avenue SE early on Aug. 31 and install fencing and cement barriers throughout the day to close Imperial Drive SE from the villas east to the Turner Valley Golf Club.
Royalite residents will now have to travel east to Highway 22 to access Black Diamond and west to Decalta Road towards Turner Valley, adding another three kilometres to their drive.
Royalite Way resident Bill Rowe, who has been fighting the closure for months, said his biggest concern is the change will drastically increase traffic in front of his home.
“Thirty homes are north of me on Royalite and Dingman Close,” he said. “Before, those vehicles would have used east Imperial Drive to get to Black Diamond and Okotoks. Now they will have to go past my home. I’m exasperated by the whole thing.”
Murray Knowler, another resident on Royalite Way, made one last effort to change Town council’s mind. Council made the decision to close Imperial Drive, affecting 38 homes, during its June 15 meeting.
A special meeting was held on July 27 to discuss Knowler’s request to keep the portion of the road that passes through the golf club’s 14th hole open in the winter.
Council denied it, arguing it would cost $250,000 to upgrade Royalite Way to the standard required by Alberta Transportation to handle more than residential traffic.
Knowler said council didn’t consider how many vehicles would pass by south Royalite Way as a result of the road closure.
“Traffic from outside our area would be almost non-existent in winter,” he said of his proposal. “If east Imperial Drive is closed, however, all residents will be forced to come and go down south Royalite each and every time we go anywhere.”
Closing Imperial Drive initially came to town council about 10 years ago. In 2006, a bylaw was written to close the section of Imperial Drive in response to a proposed 700 home development south of the Royalite Way in negotiations with the developer, Town and golf course.
The bylaw required the developer to build an extension of Royalite Way to 16th Avenue SE. However, the development was never built so the extension did not get built.
It was revisited following the 2013 flood when west Imperial Drive was deemed unsafe by the Province due to erosion of the riverbank.
The Town applied for and received Flood Recovery Erosion Control program funding to expand the road and close a portion of Imperial Drive.
Construction began on the expansion in late 2014 and the Town held two public meetings and conducted a survey that showed 51 per cent of residents didn’t supported the bylaw.
Gary Taylor, general manager of the Turner Valley Golf Club, said next week’s closure of Imperial Drive is the first step in a long process.
“At least we are moving forward,” said Taylor, adding the golf club spent more than $1 million to complete requirements laid out in the 2006 agreement. “There is a lot more on the agreement than just the road closure that needs to be looked at.”
Taylor said there will be future discussions on removing the closed road and creating a pathway to relocate pedestrians away from the 14th hole.
In an effort to keep pedestrians off the throughway in the meantime, the golf club will place signage prompting them to use a temporary grass pathway running about 250 yards along the Sheep River ridge through the golf course, he said.
“We certainly don’t want to completely block off people from walking and enjoying that type of activity,” he said.
