The St Davids roundabout at the intersection of York Rd and Four Mile Creek, may be the most contentious issue St Davids has seen, and for good reason. Roundabouts allow for a free flow of traffic and more traffic volume is able to pass through quickly. There is no denying the positive effect this can have when used in the right place. The historic heart of St Davids is NOT that place.

The purpose roundabouts provide is the opposite of what’s needed in our village centre. We need traffic to slow down and to stop. We need children and elders, including those with visual impairment and other needs, along with the tourists we so happily welcome, to cross safely. We need our existing and future businesses to flourish. These needs far outweigh the need to move traffic through quickly, especially when other viable solutions exist.

There are multiple options to create a traffic bypass, such as improving and extending Line 9 to Tanbark Road and installing a roundabout at Concession 6 and York Road. 

Further, the roundabout will be incredibly expensive. The region has allocated $750,000 to the design of the Roundabout. The project is budgeted at $3.7M without accounting for the expropriation of private land that will be required to complete this project. The parcel of private land was planned for a mixed commercial and residential unit across from Junction coffee shop, which won’t be possible if this project proceeds. In totality, the entire roundabout project could easily cost tens of millions of dollars.

This roundabout will be detrimental to our community. The St Davids Ratepayers Association and the residents of St Davids plead to the town and region to consider the other solutions. 

The public consultative process surrounding this proposed roundabout, which took place through the Pandemic, did not afford us a fair chance to engage. We are asking for this chance again. We are hoping to collect signatures from local residents that are interested in finding a better and more cost effective solution.