Transfer the Gaetz Service Roads

Closing a service road to the public can provide several practical benefits, including reduced maintenance costs for taxpayers by eliminating ongoing upkeep, snow clearing, and future resurfacing, while also improving traffic safety and efficiency by reducing divergent movements and conflict points at intersections. Red Deer’s service roads made sense in the 1970s and 1980s, when traffic volumes were lower and the city was far less populated, but under today’s conditions they are increasingly impractical and inefficient. Repurposing these underused corridors—particularly by selling off the service roads along Gaetz Avenue North—would allow the land to be redeveloped into viable commercial sites on a primary corridor, strengthen the tax base, and in some cases enable better-designed parking and access solutions that align with current traffic realities and urban growth.