Door knocking In Heritage Hills

I was door knocking in Heritage Hills this weekend and had some great dialogue with residents.  It's amazing how fast our community is growing and it's been a while since I've seen some of those areas.

Heritage Hills is a community full of young families and experiencing the frustrations of a community being built but the greatest concerns I heard were in regards to transportation and connectivity.

1.  Frustration with Highway 22 and 1A

The concerns about the intersection is one of the dominant frustrations I've heard throughout Cochrane.  As anyone knows who uses that intersection, it gets badly clogged and traffic backs up, especially during rush hour or long weekends.

The challenge is that the intersection is under the mandate of Alberta Transportation.  The need to have it upgraded was identified nearly 20 years ago.  In my first term, Cochrane had managed to get the intersection and the highway twinning down the hill to the intersection added to the provincial 3 year plan for upgrades, but then the recession hit and the provincial government had to make other decisions.  So we're back to lobbying to get it back on the 3 year plan.  Frustrating.  I bring this up every time I see Ron Casey, our MLA and he assures me he brings it up with Ric McIver, the Minister of Transportation every time he sees him.

I'm thinking it's time we intensify our lobbying.

2.  Community Pathway Access to the rest of Cochrane and safe access across Highway 1A

It was disturbing to find out how many kids and families are crossing Highway 1A on a regular basis without a safe crossing. This is a huge concern with this development and the challenge is that it's so isolated by both the highways and geography.

The solution for access lies in development of the community to the south of the highway, Heartland.  When that development builds out further it will lead to a new intersection, with lights, at the Horse Creek Road intersection.  Depending on that, it could be a year or 2 before we see the intersection in place.

There is a new Area Structure Plan being developed for Heritage Hills that will include connectivity plans.  That will be Sept 25th at the RancheHouse to gather input and I encourage residents to attend.