The City of Bunbury council has agreed to commit more than $200,000 to assess the feasibility of narrowing Blair Street, following robust debate which saw councillors divided.
The council resolution, carried 8-5 during the council vote on February 4, involved engaging a consultant to undertake a detailed road design of Blair Street to determine whether it could be made single lane.
The project forms part of a $500,000 commitment to implement projects detailed in the city's 2020 CBD Action Plan, which is designed to strengthen Bunbury's position as the state's second city.
The move was first suggested in the Bunbury City Centre Outcomes Report in 2019 as a means of improving pedestrian access issues between the city centre and the waterfront.
According to the city, the plan was well-received during public consultation, however, some respondents expressed concerns about the traffic implications of the proposal to reduce Blair Street to single lanes.
In a public deputation to the council, resident Deborah Bowman cited concerns about the plan to narrow Blair Street and said it would be a "backwards move".
"This is a major thoroughfare into our CBD," she said.
"Why would you spend a bucket load of money to cause traffic congestion and plant trees only to have to rip them up in five to 10 years when the population grows?
"I have grave concerns about the bottleneck that would be created, with additional traffic coming from the developments in Marlston Hill and the Discovery Parks expansion.
"You don't build streets to accommodate current needs, but future needs."
During council debate, councillor Michelle Steck echoed Ms Bowman's concerns in speaking against the motion to undertake a detailed road design and said the proposal was "asking for trouble".
"Strategic governance involves consultation with our community," she said.
"I would urge council to go back to the drawing board."
City of Bunbury mayor Gary Brennan stressed that the motion was not a commitment to reduce the lanes and that the entirety of the road reserve would be available to accomodate for growth in both population and traffic demands in the future.
"The key recommendation is whether or not the city invests around $200,000 in getting professional traffic engineers to do modelling on what impact that would have if it was to include car parking in Blair Street, therefore narrowing the traffic lanes to one each way," he said.
"Part of that process is then to look at the feeder streets coming into Blair Street throughout the CBD.
"We really do need to get the professional traffic management officers to do that work and tell us whether or not it is feasible.
"It may not be feasible and, if that's the case, we won't do it.
"But if it is feasible, we'll look at the next stage of engaging with our community."
