GUELPH – Off-road vehicles (ORV) are now permitted on all Wellington County roads.
A bylaw permitting the use of ORVS on roads owned by the county was approved by county council on March 31.
The approval comes at the recommendation of the county’s roads committee, which directed staff to draft an ORV bylaw after considering a report from county engineer Don Kudo at the March 8 committee meeting.
All lower-tier municipalities in Wellington already allow ORVs on municipal roads, with the Town of Erin being the last to approve the practice in November.
Centre Wellington, Wellington North, Mapleton and Puslinch have no restrictions for ORV use.
Guelph Eramosa, Minto and Erin have some restrictions with respect to time of day and location for ORV use in their jurisdictions.
“With the committee’s direction to roads staff to provide a bylaw to allow ORV use on county roads, it would appear that the most consistent and simplest approach would be to allow ORV use on all county roads without time and location restrictions,” stated Kudo in a staff report.
Roads committee chair councillor Andy Lennox said most of the committee’s discussion on March 8 centred around making sure any bylaw was “as practical and easy to enforce” as possible for the Wellington OPP.
“We’re recommending allowing off road vehicles on county roads, without any further restriction, just to make it as simple and stable across the entire county as we possibly can,” Lennox stated.
Councillor Dave Anderson asked for the resolution regarding ORVs to be considered separately from other elements of the roads report.
“The only concern about this proposal is that we indicate that it’s going to be on all county roads,” Anderson stated.
“I have a little bit of a safety concern about some of the major routes in the County of Wellington.”
He added, “One road that that I’m very familiar with is (Wellington Road) 109, which comes straight through Harriston. It’s a very, very busy road.
“The traffic is so wicked there that you’re actually going to have three lanes of traffic on that road. And I can’t see it.
“It’s a safety issue. And I really have a concern about opening it to county roads.”
Anderson asked if there had been a report focusing on safety concerns.
“The previous reports have dealt with safety,” Lennox replied.
The resolution to accept the report directing staff to prepare a bylaw to allow ORVs on county roads was approved, with Anderson and councillor Campbell Cork opposed. Councillors George Bridge and Gregg Davidson were absent.
The bylaw was approved later in the meeting.
