LRT neighbourhood planning meetings to begin
http://www.thespec.com/news/business...tings-to-begin
Hamiltonians will have a chance to bring their vision for a light-rail transit corridor to life during a series of public meetings around six key neighbourhoods along the proposed route.
Citizens and local architects will be tasked the next few weeks with creating conceptual designs for buildings and public areas around station stops on Queenston, King and Main streets. The wider public will be able to provide comments on the designs, which will then be considered in drafting policies on land uses, building heights, densities and urban design elements.
In the event of a strike by city workers, the meetings listed below will be cancelled and rescheduled.
Stakeholders such as home and business owners, community groups and business improvement associations have been invited to design sessions with local architects who will use software to create 3D conceptual drawings from the group’s input.
Those concepts will be shown to the public for comment in evening sessions.
“The idea is to stimulate discussion on growth, change and transformation in the corridor,” said Christine Newbold, senior project manager on the city’s transit team.
The six study areas were chosen to represent the wide variety of neighbourhoods along the route and for their potential for transit-spurred development, said Newbold.
“The question is how to make those areas places of activity, vibrant people places.”
Hamilton is about halfway — at five on a scale of 1 to 10 — in its LRT design process, says Jill Stephen, the city’s director of rapid transit.
A lot of the big work has been done, says Stephen, including choosing a route and stop locations, analyzing traffic and subsurface impacts and developing a financing model.
Still to come are the heavy technical engineering drawings and details and an environmental assessment.
Stephen says the goal will be to reach level six by the end of the year. That will bring design work to a 30 per cent design, meaning the project can be easily visualized and there are some measurements in place.
“You couldn’t build it from that design, but the big elements are in place. You can show it to people and they can see what it will look like running past their door. and what kind of impacts it will have on intersections and driveways.”
An environmental assessment must also be completed by the end of the year. Under an agreement with Metrolinx, the city received $3 million for design work in exchange for meeting milestone deadlines.
A notice of commencement for an environmental assessment was issued Friday. That kicks off four months of consultations, a month of appeals and questions and then the province has 35 days to render a decision.
Stephen says the transit EA process is scaled down from others.
“It’s based on the premise that transit is a good idea, so we don’t have to prove that.”
The grounds for appeal are also narrower.
Stephen says there is likely at least another year of design work ahead beyond the work being completed in 2011. Construction of the 16-kilometre corridor from Eastgate Square to McMaster University will take several years.
Councillor Chad Collins wonders if all this design work isn’t putting the cart before the horse, because the city doesn’t know what its ultimate financial contribution will be.
There is nothing allocated in the capital budget, so Collins says the money will have to come from cutting back in other areas or from a tax increase. He says he doesn’t believe Hamilton taxpayers have an appetite for either option.
“My concern is that this is starting to look a lot like the (Pan Am) stadium debate. We’re talking about buying property in some instances … and we don’t have a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities the city will have.”
Collins says LRT is an important public debate, but until costs and senior government funding are known, the ongoing design work may be for nothing.
After years of controversy, Waterloo Region council this week voted 9-2 to build an $818-million, 19-kilometre rail system.
Unlike Hamilton, the project in Waterloo has been the subject of organized and vocal citizen opposition, and also has the backing of up to $565 million in provincial and federal funding. Nothing has been allocated to Hamilton.
Waterloo taxpayers will face up to a 7 per cent tax hike to pay for the transit upgrade, phased in over seven years. That’s a total of about $450 between 2012 and 2018 on a home assessed at $254,000.
The trains are expected to be running by 2017.
[email protected]
905-526-3408
LRT design workshops
Longwood Road and Main Street West study area
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
1107 Main St. W. (at Cline Avenue)
Tuesday, June 21, at 7 p.m.
The Queenston Traffic Circle and Parkdale Avenue study area
St. Columba Presbyterian Church
1540 Main St. E. (at Weir Street)
Thursday, June 23, at 7 p.m.
Dundurn Street and King Street West study area
The Scottish Rite Round Room
4 Queen St. S. (at King Street)
Monday, June 27 at 7 p.m.
The Delta and Ottawa Street study area
Delta United Church
47 Ottawa St. S.
Tuesday, June 28 at 7 p.m.
Wentworth Street and King Street East study area
Festival Banquet Centre
747 King St. E.
Tuesday, July 5 at 7 p.m.
Nash Road and Queenston Road study area
Red Hill branch of the Hamilton Public Library
695 Queenston Rd.
Wednesday July 6, 7 p.m.
The conceptual designs will be available for viewing and comment at
www.hamilton.ca/nodesandcorridors until July 22.
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