The Rainy Lake Gymnastics Academy is asking for space in front of its new Scott Street building in Fort Frances to serve as a Kiss and Ride program, similar to that offered at local schools.
Officials are looking to provide an area where participants are dropped off and picked up at the door.
President Jessica Ogden says it would make it safe for everyone.
“We just kind of wanted to be a smooth transition. We don’t want people taking up spaces and parking all over Scott Street and causing the downtown businesses to not like us,” says Ogden.
Ogden presented the proposal to the town’s Planning and Development Executive Committee this week.
The committee is favourable to the concept but has concerns with how vehicles would line up.
“In the area where they’re proposing, you can fit two to three vehicles, probably easily,” says the town’s Bylaw Enforcement Officer Patrick Briere. “But where does the queue line up after that? The concern is we can’t block Scott Street with traffic flowing through as it is”
Some suggestions were tossed out to help the Academy, including the use of nearby parking lots as staging points or areas where parents could walk their children to the facility.
Councillor John McTaggart offered another suggestion.
“You know if the kiss and ride, for lack of a better name at this point, is busy, they circle the block and come back because we can’t have them sitting in traffic holding up traffic westbound,” says McTaggart.
The Academy is expected to open the doors to its new facility in September, with programming taking place mainly after 4 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday morning and early afternoon.
