minutes - 2012-11-30
Minutes of CCC’s November 2012 Meeting
Wednesday November 28, 2012 at 7:00pm
Dalhousie Community Centre
755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa
Present: John Verbaas – Chairperson, Action Sandy Hill; Leslie Kirk - Secretary, Old Ottawa East Community Association; Ida Henderson, Dalhousie Community Association
Regrets: Jordan Charbonneau – Vice-chair, Centretown Citizens Community Association; Roland Dorsay, Island Park Community Association;
1) Administrative
- Agenda review: approved, Meeting Secretary: will be Leslie
- Approval of Minutes: Sep, 2012
2) Report on CCC Presentation re. 2013 Transportation Budget
- topics discussed:
- funding for 42m$ Greenbank Rd widening: will be shortfall in development charges to build this road. Shortfall will be borrowed and then factored into next calculation of development charges that will happen in 2014
- Rideau R footbridge: no funding for construction in 4 year capital forecast
- Rideau Canal footbridge detailed design funding but no funding for construction in 4 year capital forecast
- Alternative funding sources for roads. Toronto has done some research into this. Really no desire on our Council to explore other options; excuse is that provincial legislation restricts revenue generation
3) Transportation Master Plan Update
- report on mtg with Colin Simpson (City staff person on TMP update): explanation of the basic process. First step is to update the policy statements that accompany the Transportation Master Plan. Second is a technical analysis of date from origin/destination survey to determine demand. Third step is to “layer” this demand over existing road/transit network and determine what roads are required. Final step is to calculate future developments charges (DCs) required to finance the construction of required roads
- first public consultation date: Jan 29th 2013
- discussion of potential CCC submissions/participation
- CCC would like to support WalkOttawa’s thoughts on TMP (Ida to communicate this to Michelle)
4) E-W LRT Project - Blair to Tunneys
- 3 RFP proposals submitted to City Sep10th
- winning bidder expected to be announced in Dec (December 5th to be exact)
- detailed displays to be set up soon after announcement
5) Commencement of EA's for Transitway Expansions
- Kanata North: March Road to technology area. Estimate is $350M for 6-8km. Will be 1000 space park and ride. This project for sometime after 2030.
- Barrhaven to Riverside S. Couple of different options being studied. One involves crossing Strandherd Bridge with bus rapid transit (BRT). Another option involves extending O-Train. Will feature 1600 park and ride spaces
6) Update on Interprovincial Crossings Study
- Councillors Fleury & Holmes' inquiries to staff on Truck routings/volumes after a bridge is built.
-Councillor Holmes wrote to Nancy Scheppers about tripling of truck traffic on Chaudiere bridge if KE is closed to truck traffic. Nancy responded that this is still better than what would happen if no east end bridge built. Diane not satisfied with this answer.
-Councillor Fleury inquired about the closing of KE and CHaudiere to trucks in Official Plan. Vivi Chi responded that lowering truck traffic in downtown was only 1 of 9 goals of building east end bridge (ie. not that important)
-word is that the decision-makers will be meeting soon to “pick” the location of the bridge
7) Denial of widening of Sussex Dr.
- report on council refusal of NCC request to widen Sussex & demolish homesin heritage district of Lowertown
-example of successful activism
-the residents of the homes that were to be demolished took good care of the protesters
- Lower Town Community Association proposing other solutions
8) Interprovincial Transit Liason with STO
- recent Transit commission commitment to improve networking with STO staff
- OC Transpo recognized that not much communication between the transit authorities currently
- however, this liason commitment does not provide concrete commitments. Is only agreement for each organization to present at each other’s transit commissions on upcoming projects
9) Any other business
a. Main Street: City and Councillor Chernushenko are liking idea of narrowing the road, make it more pedestrian and cycling friendly. Could involve reducing traffic lanes. John V. raises point that taking volume off Main Street would lead to more pressure to build AVTC
b. Presto Card: impact on low income/disadvantaged groups. Introduction of Presto Card means elimination of bus tickets. Bus tickets are often given to people by shelters, Community Health Centres for clients to use to get to doctor’s appointments and other such things. Introduction of Presto makes this much more time consuming and/or costly because the cards cost $6, have to be reloaded.
Active files waiting for next steps
1. Interprovincial Transit Study: Report was due by end of 2011
-starting to suspect that this report will never be finished/released
NEXT MEETING: Last Wednesday of January (January 30, 2013)