The Town of Kingsville has approved a $5.8-million link connecting Heritage Road (County Road 50) with Road 2, creating a ring road that will allow motorists to bypass the downtown and also service future west-end housing development.

The road, roughly 1.5 km in length, will service 88 acres of residential-zoned land known as the Conklin Property west of Prince Albert Road.

Amico Properties Inc. has a multiphase housing development planned for the property, but has not submitted a plan of subdivision setting out how many homes will be built.

Mayor Nelson Santos said 90 per cent of the cost of the road will be paid through development charges. He said the town has already entered into preliminary discussions with the three landowners along the new route – a homeowner, Amico and a farm owner – about the sale of the land for the new connecting road.

Santos said those talks will be stepped up now that council has approved construction of the road. He said the need for a collector road was determined in 2011, but deferred until the “environment was right” and development fees could pay the bulk of the cost.

He said the road will be a key link servicing residential-zoned land farther west toward the Kingsville Golf and Country Club.

Santos said the collector road will also allow diversion of traffic from Main Street. Currently, the only major north-south route out of Kingsville is Division Street.

“This is an effort to deflect some of the traffic so it goes around (the downtown). It will create another north-south road.”

Coun. Kimberly DeYong said the building of the west-end road was an example of good planning and will hopefully prevent some of the congestion issues seen on the eastside of town.

The mayor said there would be east-west road connections to the Heritage Road extension, but no home construction would be allowed beside the new route. Santos said the road will be built to handle truck traffic.

Construction could begin as early as two years. Santos said the road will likely include bike lanes, matching similar lanes along County Road 50.