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Sylvan Lake may soon eliminate hybrid school-playground zones

Amendments to the Traffic Bylaw are expected to come before Town Council at a later date
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Sylvan Lake Town Council may soon be getting rid of hybrid school and playground zone in favour of one or the other. John Watson, operations manager with the Town, proposed the Town follow a similar model to neighbouring municipality, Red Deer. File Photo

Sylvan Lake may soon be seeing some changes to the school and playground zones within town.

At the Feb. 11 council meeting, Town Council directed administration to prepare amendments to The Traffic Bylaw which would see the elimination of hybrid zones, those that are both a school and playground zone.

“The concern with having various types of zones is that they likely contribute to motorist confusion, especially within hybrid zones,” explained John Watson, operations manager.

Sylvan Lake would be following in the footsteps of other municipalities such as Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Calgary and Edmonton if Council chooses to remove hybrid zones.

Before a decision is made final, Council plans to give the public a chance for give their input.

Mayor Sean McIntyre says it is important to have resident feedback on a topic such as this.

Coun. Megan Chernoff Hanson would also like to see if the schools, in particular the Catholic schools, have had any issues with drivers.

“The Catholic schools get out early on Monday’s, when the school zones are not in affect, and I would like to know, specifically, if they have had any problems with motorists during those time,” said Hanson.

Red Deer Regional Catholic Schools’ Superintendent Paul Mason said in an email to Watson that the school board would support a change in signs, and suggested the beginning time for school zones be changed to 8 a.m.

“…We feel your suggested sign changed are appropriate primarily because it reduces potential confusion with drivers,” Mason’s email states.

If the amendments to the Traffic Bylaw are carried it would see school zones in Sylvan Lake move from fragmented hours to consistent hours of 8 a.m to 4:30 p.m. on school days.

Town Council’s motion directed administration to amend the bylaw using Red Deer as a base and return for first reading.

Watson said the use of schools and playgrounds by children may be “unpredictable” because they often have spare time between classes or after school, and often children are at the playground well into the evening.

“Because of these and other factors, children are unpredictably present throughout the day and into the evening in most school zones,” said Watson, adding the time difference between the public and Catholic schools add further confusion.

Playgrounds are often busy outside of regular school hours as well. School zones in Sylvan Lake are only in effect on school days, and not over the summer holidays, weekends or statutory or religious holidays.

Watson recommended Council replace all five hybrid zones with playground zones.

If the bylaw passed with the recommended amendments, playground zones would be in effect from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. everyday.

Council noted there is some room to move things around as, in some instances, when the playground on school property is situated far from one road but closer to another. It is possible to see a school zone labeled for the road nearest to the school building and a playground zone for the area closer to where children often play.

The amendments to the Traffic Bylaw are expected to come back to council at a later date.


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