Bridge over Jackson Park remains an option

A plan to do a more-detailed environmental assessment of

The Parkway extension is being set aside by city councillors – at least for now.

Council voted a final time on Monday to allow staff to carry out six smaller transportationrelated studies instead, and then create a new overall transportation master plan.

The vote was 8-3 in favour of completing the six studies.

Coun. Dean Pappas, Gary Baldwin and Keith Riel voted against doing the transportation studies; they all said they were unhappy with the fact that one of the studies is a management plan for Jackson Park that still contemplates a future bridge spanning the park.

Those six studies would also include a transit route review, 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.

Coun. Keith Riel said he didn’t support the plans at all.

“All I see is weasel-words to keep The Parkway in here. So I cannot support any of this,” he said.

Some streets, such as bumpy parts of Charlotte St., “where you lose your fillings,” need to be fixed before they can consider transportation studies that will only lead to a Parkway, he said.

But Coun. Andrew Beamer said he’s always supported The Parkway – and still does.

He said it’s not about saving two or three minutes in the car — it’s about getting vehicles away from the residential areas and schools.

“Our residential streets are not highways,” he said.

Beamer said Medical Dr. carries 9,000 cars away from residential streets, for example.

“That’s what would happen in the north end,” he said.

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 people appealed the Parkway plan with the provincial government, which later ordered the city to do a more-detailed environmental assessment of the corridor before construction could begin.

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

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

Clarke said he doesn’t think staff is planning to put a new bridge over Jackson Park; the park management plan is supposed to consider how to improve the existing bridge over the park, he said.

There’s no putting a new bridge over the park, he said: “We know how the public would react to that.”

But city public works director Wayne Jackson said staff would still consider a future bridge over the park. Then again, he said, it can be removed.

“Council has full control over this issue.…We think it’s the better option – but council is supreme. Council has the final decision.”

Clarke said he thought that decisions was already made by council.

“I thought it was gone. Dead. Buried,” he said.

Mayor Daryl Bennett says they were asked “to complete a report” that will give council “guidance” in the future.

“Then we can take out whichever bridge you want,” he said.

Karen HjortJensen, of the Peterborough Greenspace Coalition, spoke to council before the debate and vote.

“These studies should not be another secretive, internal project led solely by the city and external consultants,” she said.

Hjort-Jensen said this approach has been “problematic and divisive” in the past, and that she thinks there ought to be better public consultation.

‘‘ Council has full control over this issue .... We think it’s the better option — but council is supreme. Council has the final decision. WAYNE JACKSON public works director