Residents in a southwest Edmonton neighborhood are complaining after the city placed small concrete barriers at an intersection to improve pedestrian safety.

The barricades on 116 Street and 77 Avenue are a pilot program part of the Belgravia neighbourhood renewal project. But even though the project is meant to improve the neighborhood, many residents are already complaining.

“The value for our house will take a huge hit because now we will never be able to park in front of our house,” David Wishart told CTV News. “We can’t take groceries in, we can’t take our luggage out if we’re going on a trip.”

One resident told CTV News he has never felt unsafe in the neighbourhood as a pedestrian.

“I’ve got two young children and we cross the street no problem,” Phil Campbell said. “We’ve never had issues with cars.”

 

Ward 8 Councillor Ben Henderson says the barriers are an outline to turn into medians, and plans to meet with residents before the next round of public consultations.

“As soon as we know there’s another answer, we should be shifting and trying the other answer. I don’t think we should leave this here for a huge amount of time.”

With files from Angela Jung