Popular road allowance/trail to remain in city hands

A rural unopened road allowance in Quinte West that’s used by many as a recreational trail will likely continue to be owned by the City of Quinte West.

The road allowance is known locally as Crosby’s Lane and runs between Powerline and English Settlement/McMurray Roads in the area of the Murray Canal.

Farmer Rick Lange owns property on both sides of the road allowance and hoped to buy it to make farming his land easier.

However, after seeing an advertisement in a local publication saying the city might declare the land surplus and sell it a petition was quickly signed by over 500 people who were against private ownership of the road allowance.

Several of those against spoke at Wednesday’s virtual meeting of Quinte West’s Corporate Finance Committee saying that people had enjoyed the area for walking, along with off-road vehicle and snowmobile use for decades and it should remain that way.

For his part, Rick Lange stressed he had no intention of stirring up such a controversy and that it just made sense to him to own the road allowance as he was farming on both sides of it.

He believed his owning it would help eliminate damage by off-road vehicles to his crops as well.

He stressed that if he owned it he would continue to have agreements with residents in the area to use it as a recreational trail and for other purposes as his family had for many years.

Meanwhile, Quinte West councillors hearing the comments declared that the process for the city declaring unopened road allowances surplus needed to be updated.

Several said more than just one newspaper ad was needed to inform the public of plans for road allowances with many saying anyone owning property along an allowance should be informed of any proposals and allowed a chance to bid on it.

A staff report on the process of declaring land surplus is coming to a future meeting.

Quinte West council will make the final decision on the issue at a meeting in the near future.