minutes-2011-11-30
Minutes of CCC’s November 2011 Meeting
November 30, 2011 at 7:00pm
Somerset Community Police Centre, 393 Somerset Street West, Ottawa
Present: John Verbaas – Chairperson, Action Sandy Hill; Leslie Kirk - Secretary, Old Ottawa East Community Association; Roland Dorsay, Island Park Community Association; Ida Henderson, Dalhousie Community Association; David Jeanes, Transport Action Canada; and George Wright, Glebe resident.
Regrets: Jordan Charbonneau – Vice-chair, Centretown Citizens Community Association
1) Administrative
- Approval of Agenda: Approved
- Approval of Minutes of September 24, 2011 and October 26, 2011 Meetings: Approved
2) Bronson Ave Renewal
· report on Nov 24th public meeting: about 200 people present, lots of questions from those in attendance, only support for proposed plan was from the City, the fact that O-Train service to be doubled not factored into the proposed plan, Public Advisory Committee and Councillor’s suggestions/ideas ignored in proposed plan
· discussion of CCC letter of support for DCA & CCCA in their opposition
to current widening proposal: draft letter reviewed
ACTION: letter to be sent on December 1 as December 1 is deadline to submit comments
-wondering if traffic counts are available along Bronson to compare to traffic levels on King Edward. The thinking being that if traffic is less than King Edward, then 3 lanes would be sufficient. Leslie wondering if this info would be available through “open data” initiatives
3) Downtown E-W LRT / Downtown Moves Study / Pedestrian Summit Updates
a. Downtown E-W LRT: consultation on western station designs (Lebretton & Bayview), 4 companies working on bids, nothing much will happen in the next year while companies are working on bids, discussion of how to get downtown businesses involved
b. kick-off of Downtown Moves consultation process (downtown streets renewal initiative triggered by LRT project)
-Report on November 3rd workshop and guest lectures: the talks by speakers from other cities very good, lots of examples of great design
-Next step: working group meeting on December 6 (John V. Jordan, and David Jeanes are members of the working group)
c. pedestrian summit public meeting: good turnout, result of meeting was decision that a Pedestrian Advocacy Group should be formed, another meeting to be scheduled
4) Footbridge over Canal Clegg/5th Ave Report on Open House #2
-good turnout, mostly positive, work done so far by City in line with comments and concerns expressed in earlier consultations
5) 2012 Budget Report:
Traffic Calming Policy
- 2012 budget allocated 2.5m$ to new traffic calming measures
- no intention for further funding in subsequent years
- no visibility on how the available funds are to be allocated
ACTION: CCC individuals to contact Councillors regarding process of allocation of funds (Roland to contact Katherine, John V. to contact Matthieu, Leslie to contact David)
UPASS
-agreement that OC Transpo did not provide enough details on how “revenue neutral” cost was calculated
-concern that sharp increase may cause UPASS to fail
Ottawa On the Move - Accelerated over next 3 yrs:
- 125m$ in road re-pavings, 200m$ in road based sewer/water renewals
- 12m$ for cycling initiatives (in addition to 2m$ / yr for 2011-2014)
- 4m$ for 40+ sidewalk renewals totalling approx 20kms
-the purpose of acceleration of projects is to minimize/eliminate road projects during light rail construction during 2015-2017 period
-concern is that the purpose will be forgotten by then and that more road construction will continue despite this intention
New Road Projects
- Alta Vista corridor 50m$ committed
- development charge funded road reserve fund is expected to be 47m$ in deficit by end of 2012
- yet a further ~180m$ for road expansions & widenings planned for
2013-2015 and development charge fund (given historical figures) will not be able to keep pace
-this is problematic because Council boasts that new roads/widenings are fully funded by development charges
6) Discussion of the implications of proposed new lobbying by-law
- non-profit or not, community or not, all lobbyists are to register
on each topic of interaction with council/staff
-concerns discussed include: possible negative impact on charitable organizations that might lose charitable status because of “lobbying” activities, “chilling effect” on citizen participation, reporting requirements on staff might lead to less willingness to meet with residents to discuss issues, onerous as reporting necessary from any communication that is not exempt, difficult to draw line between non-lobbying and lobbying in some cases
-agreement that by-law should not apply to unpaid people acting on behalf of non-profits
ACTION: Leslie to draft letter on behalf of CCC to be sent ahead of December 6 committee meeting
7) Update on W-LRT Corridor Selection (west of Tunney's Pasture)
- or should we say 'non-update'? Still no new information available and no meeting scheduled
8) Traffic Impact Studies (conducted as part of development reviews)
- staff study on actual vs predicted traffic impacts on sampling of previous
developments.
-Roland explained why this review was not very helpful (reasons include the lack of information regarding methodology, a number of comparisons were not provided for unknown reasons, samples too small)
-Roland to ask Katherine if this exercise could be repeated
Active Files with no new developments in past month
- Interprovincial Transit Study: Report due by end-2011 - Looking unlikely now (David Jeanes reported that the study is to be posted online after review by study partners; likely to happen in early 2012)
- Ottawa River Crossings Phase 2B Study
- Alta Vista Corridor removal from 2013 TMP: A formal request has been made for traffic statistic trends in the corridor since 2003
Any other business/upcoming events
- Dec 1st: Mtg with City Staff/Lansdowne Proponents re. traffic impacts
-Request for Gladstone O-Train Station: a confusing answer to request for information provided; seemed to indicate that this idea will not be considered
NEXT MEETING: Last Wednesday of January (January 25, 2012)