The prospect of 208th Street becoming a truck route is dimming, but local residents won't breathe a sign of relief until the final vote is held.

Carrie Randall has been an outspoken voice against the truck route for the past several weeks, and has gone so far as to found the Willoughby Homeowners Association (WHOA) to help protest against the plan.

After 688 people turned out at an open house last week, several Township councillors have already expressed opposition to the truck route plans.

Three separate motions are on the agenda for the next two council meetings, all linked to the route.

Councillor Kim Richter wants a public hearing on the matter. Councillors Mel Kositsky and Steve Ferguson are both planning to ask if there is a way to separate the truck route from TransLink's Major Road Network (MRN).

That's fine with Randall, who would be perfectly alright with seeing the road in the MRN, as long as it doesn't allow large trucks free access.

"We all want it to be widened," she said.

Randall worries that the road is too narrow for the amount of traffic it handles now. She's seen more than a few accidents involving cars in the ditch in Willoughby.

Randall's concerns are shared by more than a few people. So far more than 2,000 names have been gathered on a petition against the truck route, with signatures coming from a wide cross-section of the community.

However, she said the biggest opponents of the plan are parents, who want their kids to be safe on local streets.

Right now, 208th Street has no shoulders on much of the route through Willoughby, particularly the mile between 72nd Avenue and 80th.

It has asphalt paths on either side of the road, but they are broken up by numerous tree roots.

"No one uses it," Randall said. "Every parent drives their child to school."

The opposition has been staggering. Coun. Kim Richter, who thinks a future truck route should go on 216th Street if anywhere, said 1,836 letters have been sent to Township hall about the plan.

"That's a record, in all the time that I've been on council," she said.

In fact, a further 400 letters have come in since last week, noted Township Mayor Rick Green.

Green said he plans to vote against a truck route.

"I'm not supporting it," he said. "The public, in my opinion, has spoken."

He heard from people starting earlier this spring at one of his Mayor's Forum events.

Putting a truck route on 208th Street would go against what the Township has already planned for the area, Richter said.

"We purposefully densified the neighbourhood plan in that area," Richter said. One reason was to create a pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood.

Langley Township had considered adding 208th Street from a normal municipal road to a part of TransLink's MRN. That would give the Township extra cash to pay for road repairs and maintenance.

Regardless of what happens, 208th Street is getting busier and is being widened to four lanes, piece by piece, according to Paul Cordeiro, the Township's manager of transportation engineering.

While there is no specific timeline to complete the widening, the Township's plan is ultimately to have the road be four lanes all the way from the 208th Street highway overpass to the 204th Street overpass at the border with Langley City.

Crews are currently widening a small stretch of the road between 62nd and 64th Avenues to four lanes, Cordeiro said. Parts of 208th, such as sections north of 80th, are already wide enough to host four lanes of traffic, but they haven't been marked out as such.

Other sections will be widened as Willoughby develops, Cordeiro said.

mclaxton@langleyadvance.com