Dec 2, 2010 CCC Minutes

City Centre Coalition

December 2, 2010 at 7:00pm

Somerset Community Police Centre

393 Somerset Street West, Ottawa

Present:

John Verbaas - Action Sandy Hill (Chair)

Leslie Kirk - Old Ottawa East Community Associate (Vice Chair),

Cam Robertson – Dow’s Lake Residents Association,

Ida Henderson – Dalhousie Community Association,

Charles Ackben-Marchand – Centretown Citizens Community Association,

John Courtneidge,

David Gladstone

Regrets:

Roland Dorsay – Island Park Community Association

1) Administrative

a. Meeting Secretary – Leslie

b. Agenda Approved (revised only with respect to order of items to accommodate Charles’ schedule)

c. Minutes of October 28, 2010 meeting approved

2) Western LRT Extension Route Selection EA (John/Cam)

• • Public Consultation Group held on November 9, 2010

  • 3 main routes and a number of hybrid routes put forward

  • a number of comments by consultants that suggest bias against Carling route (possible tripling of employment at Tunney’s but no mention of employment opportunities at the Civic, western portion of Carling being better suited for intensification and lack of intensification opportunities between O-train trench and Civic, Carling is longest route but no mention of fact that more people live along Carling)

  • 9 evaluation criteria have been selected

  • PCG members would have opportunity to suggest weightings at Jan 2011 PCG mtg

  • consultants will be determining final weightings of criteria

  • a final recommendation should be ready in April 2011

3) Downtown segregated east-west bike lane

• • John discussed his recent trip to Portland and Vancouver and his thought on their bike lane projects , due to inclement weather usage was not high on the observed days

  • Charles attended latest public consultation group meeting on November 23

  • City proposed Laurier (between Elgin and Bronson)as preferred route

  • Laurier would be reduced from 4 lanes to 2 + 1 parking to accommodate bike lanes

  • there will be an advanced light to cyclist, no right turns on reds

  • Bronson condo owners concerned about loss of parking but City to make more on street parking available on Gloucester & Nepean

  • Concerns: project might fail because it does not extend far enough and as a result not attract sufficient number of new cyclist; might not be complete until late in the 2011 season

  • pilot project to cost $2M

  • next step: consultation with businesses and to go to Transportation Committee in January

  • final recommendation is expected to go to council by April 2011

4) CCC Website

• • John has finished drafting CCC website

  • it can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/site/citycentrecoalition/

  • group decided to buy domain for the site; those in attendance contributed a few dollars each

  • site is also now operable and reachable at www.ccc-ottawa.ca

  • comments to date are that the site looks good

  • point of site is to be different than blogs

  • with respect to minutes, they will be circulated for comment and then posted to site

  • members will look into getting links to CCC posted on other sites

  • summaries of reports can be contributed and will be posted together with link to the relevant report

  • John will continue to take comments, suggestions at jverbaas@rogers.com

5) Upcoming Road Construction

a. Rescue Bronson

• • a group of individuals representing Centretown CA, Dalhousie CA, COCC, Councillor Holmes

  • goal to make Bronson reconstruction better north of Gladstone; about improving experience of non-drivers while minimizing impact on drivers or potentially even improving flow in some cases

  • original suggestion by planners was to widen lanes and narrow sidewalks

  • Rescue Bronson want to see “Road Diet” concept applied

  • Rescue Bronson supports 3 lane model (2 thru and 1 turning lane)

  • City modelled 3 lane concept and determined that it worked except at the Gladstone and Bronson and Somerset and Bronson intersection

  • revised modelling with 4 lanes at these problem intersections is being done

  • construction scheduled for Summer 2011 (may be delayed a year)

  • “Escarpment Plan” at north end of Bronson not in scope of the current Bronson project but Councillor Holmes is trying to have this area included in the project

  • details: www.rescuebronson.ca

b. Rideau Street (Dalhousie and Cummings Bridge)

- renew sewers/water and re-design streetscape

-first Public Advisory Committee held on December 7, 2010

-work likely to start in 2012

6) Other projects waiting for next stage of consultation

a. NCC Inter-provincial transit study: been advised that this project is “to wrap up by end of year”

b. NCC Inter-provincial crossings study (aka East End Bridge): next phase to start early in new year : SUN article says delayed due to lack of commitment of funds from Quebec, unclear whether the delay is simply procedural or for other reasons...

c. Western LRT extension: PCG meeting #3 in late January 2011

7) Other Announcements from the floor

a. John Courtneidge: recent fatal accidents have reminded him of his idea to encourage safer driving and raising awareness of taking care when driving; awareness campaign called “Drive Gently Wednesdays”; still thinking of the idea and wondering about what next steps would be

b. Canal Pedestrian Crossing: Charles attended the last meeting; only a few crossings modelled; next steps unknown (hopefully a report will be forthcoming)

Meeting Adjourned

Next Meeting: Thursday January 27, 2011 (location Somerset Community Police Centre 393 Somerset Street West )

John

(With thanks for these minutes to Leslie Kirk )