Heather Wright/The Independent

A plan which was seen as a way to revive Forest’s downtown has been shelved.

In the fall of 2024, members of the Forest BIA pitched a plan which would turn King Street East into a one-way, widening the sidewalks and providing up to 10 per cent more parking for the stores downtown. It was part of a plan to make the downtown a focal point for the arts, with a new community parkette complete with a stage.

BIA representatives said the merchants were “overwhelmingly” behind the idea.

But it seems members of the public were not.

In November, Lambton Shores council asked staff to take a deeper dive into the project after hearing complaints about turning King into a one-way street.

The municipality set up a system called Flash Vote and over 800 people replied to the survey on the plans. Most people “strongly disagreed” with making King one-way. People who logged onto the survey knowing what it was about had the strongest opinions with 67 per cent strongly opposing the move.

“Changing to one way is stupid. We can find a better way to spend tax payer money rather than ripping up a street for a long period of time and killing an already dying downtown,” wrote one person in the comments to the survey.

“Sidewalk and street repairs are needed but turning it into a one way will only deter people from going downtown…angled parking will not help,” said another. “Parking would be a nightmare and would scare people from driving downtown. I would avoid driving on King as much as possible,” wrote another person taking the survey.

Less than 10 per cent of the people either strongly or somewhat supported the change.

Lambton Shores set aside $1 million for the work in its 2026 budget. Council agreed to change the scope of the work from a full reconstruction and reconfiguration project to sidewalk replacements, replacing some of the drains while that work is being done and completing two previously approved crosswalks, one with a film strip theme and the other at Main and James with an Indigenous theme.

Staff says that will cost about $400,000.