Quote:
Originally Posted by ScreamingViking
I agree it would be very unlikely the city could back out now. But for me, given the history of the politics of it all and the city's dalliances with large transit proposals in the past, I won't rest easy until the thing is operating. 
And this is just about the sweetest sweetheart deal ever. It would take a level of foolishness far beyond that displayed by some of our past mayors and councillors to put a stop to it all. But they've often shown they're very capable of it.
Changing senior governments do alter spending plans too though. The cancellation of funding for the Red Hill Valley Parkway by the Bob Rae NDP government in 1990 is still a sore point for many (bridges for streets crossing the route had already been built or begun, though construction on the roadway itself hadn't started). Now, they didn't say they would do that, but I also don't recall them saying they would not leading up to the election.
The city's next steps are to start planning changes to the connecting bus services (if they have not already) to maximize efficiency of the network and meet the changes in transit demand, continue with complementary land use planning, and get a move on planning and executing services on the other major transit corridors including improvements to the A-Line. |
As much as I think the land use planning along the corridor doesn't go far enough, especially when just off the LRT route, they do have transit corridor specific zoning. I do think they should have included transit oriented development zoning for stations that was a bit more intense, especially on perpendicular streets like Ottawa, Kenilworth and Parkdale.
The now discussed vacancy tax should apply to the TOC zoning as well, but with a more intense tax. If you leave a unit or property vacant along the multi-billion dollar LRT you should be taxed out of existence.
Parking requirements are also still too high along the corridor. They reduce the typical 1:1 ratio in most of the city to the downtown requirement of 0.8:1 which is still too high for downtown and the LRT corridor if we want to move people out of cars.
According to the census, 82% Hamilton's residents get to work by an automobile. How can we claim to want to change that mode to reduce car trips when the parking minimums are 0.80 at the LOWEST and only in transit heavy areas.
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