Over the holiday break, Edmonton will see 22 playground zones removed.
The changes address complaints that came after the city designated 160 roads as 30 km/h zones in 2017.
For example, Ward 11 Councillor Mike Nickel has received criticism of the playground designation of Mill Woods Road in front of Mill Woods Christian School.
“”There’s a light at both ends of the street. It’s a four-lane road. The school yard is totally fenced,” he said.
“By all provincial standards, it doesn’t need to be 30 kilometres.”
On Tuesday, the city looked at a total of 46 requests for changes and approved 27. Twenty-two of the approved changes will see playground zoning removed and the roadway revert to its previous speed limit.
Mayor Don Iveson said he was grateful councillors brought in public feedback.
“There were some areas where the city was, perhaps, overenthusiastic, in some of its interpretations, and so on reflection, I think the changes make sense.”
However, the Mill Woods Road request was one of many denied.
“It's arterial to arterial, and so all of a sudden right in the middle you have to go from 70 to 30 in a very short span, and it just doesn't work,” Nickel said.
He expressed frustration over the city having to revisit the issue, saying, “We just put these one size fits all policies down on the whole city and then we go back and try to fix the mistakes that we made in the past.”
The city will discuss more requests for zoning changes in the New Year.
With files from Jeremy Thompson
