Council orders six smaller transport studies

Jackson Park bridge still being considered: Public works director

A plan to do a more-detailed environmental assessment of The Parkway extension is being set aside by city councillors – at least for now.

Councillors approved a plan on Monday to allow staff to carry out six smaller transportationrelated studies instead, and then create a new overall transportation master plan.

Those six studies would include a transit route review, for instance, as well as an examination of possible traffic signal upgrades and a cycling network study.

The studies would be expected to help determine the best plan for the future – which could still include a Parkway extension.

“I think we are making good use of taxpayers’ dollars here,” said Mayor Daryl Bennett.

Councillors were at a general committee meeting when they voted, meaning the plan needs a final vote at a council meeting.

For about 70 years, the city has been debating whether to extend The Parkway as a north-south route across Peterborough. To do so would be to pave over a ribbon of green space that serves as a recreational trail, which some citizens have opposed.

Still, city council approved a $79-million plan in 2013 to complete The Parkway over 20 years as a way to alleviate traffic congestion on local roads (mostly in the city's north end).

Yet the project stalled after more than 80 citizens appealed the Parkway plan with the provincial government, which later ordered the city to do a moredetailed environmental assessment of the corridor before construction could begin.

“I think we can agree the minister’s orders have really curtailed out transportation plans,” said Coun. Lesley Parnell at the meeting Monday.

“To do nothing is not an option at all.”

She said there have been major delays already and she’s grateful city staff has developed a plan to improve transportation.

But Coun. Dean Pappas said he is concerned that the proposal to build a bridge over Jackson Park as part of a Parkway extension could resurface.

The plan for a bridge was removed by council, he pointed out - yet one of the six studies would be a mangement plan for Jackson Park that would consider whether there are any areas of the park that could be crossed by a bridge.

“The bridge is off the books,” he said.

But Wayne Jackson, the city’s director of public works, said they still have to consider every possibility for the future of transportation. “We need to be sure that down the road, we’re not stymied,” he said.

The half-dozen proposed studies would be expected to cost a total of about $3.6 million.

Some of that money has already been set aside for Parkway-related costs and some has already budgeted for transportation studies.

As part of the plan, councillors also approved the hiring of a new staff member ($130,000, including benefits) to oversee completion of the six studies.

This upset Coun. Keith Riel; he said he didn’t like the way proposals for new hires come “buried” in staff reports.

Nor did Riel like the idea of conducting more studies when he says ideas from a transportation study from 2011 haven’t been implemented.

Jackson said “a number of major things have happened” since the last transportation study in 2011, such as the large Lily Lake subdivision and the Cleantech Commons at Trent University, and it’s crucial to update the transportation plan.