New public works yard could cost $23.5M

Council may spend $23.5 million – rather than $22.5 million, as planned last year - to renovate a city-owned property on Webber Avenue to serve as the new city public works yard.

In 2016, the city set a budget of $17.1 million to do the renovations; the project has exceeded that by nearly $6 million since.

The city bought the former Coach Canada property on Webber a few years ago for conversion into a new public works yard. The idea was to move the yard there from an overcrowded site on Townsend Street.

The renovation on Webber Avene started last fall and is expected to take a year – until this fall – to be done.

On Monday at City Hall, councillors will review a city staff report that recommends council increase the project budget by $1 million.

The report explains that the cost overrun is due to factors such as soil contamination and poor site drainage.

There was also an issue with the roof of the former Coach Canada office building, the report states, as well as a problem with the structural steel in the large on-site garage.

In early 2017, council hired JR Certus Construction Co. Ltd., of Vaughan, to do the renovations.

The city received six bids for the work; all of them came in well above the city's original budget of $17.1 million.

Certus offered the least expensive bid, so city staff members returned to them and reduced the scope of the work by roughly $2 million. The subsequent Certus bid still came in over budget – at $22 million - so council will held off on the purchase of some spare transit buses for the fleet until 2019 and also planned to borrow $3 million for the project.

This additional $1 million expense comes in addition to that.

Still, a city staff report from last year points out that the next best site, a vacant property on Fisher Dr., would have cost at least $45 million to convert into a public works yard.

The former Coach Canada property already had the repair shop and other facilities, since it was once headquarters of a coach bus company.

Also on councillors’ agenda Monday:

Official Plan Update: Councillors will hear a presentation about the city’s new Official

Plan. The overhauled plan is expected to be submitted to the provincial government in 2019.

Councillors will also receive a copy of a new report from The Planning Partnership Ltd. and Lett Architects Inc. outlining ideas collected during a four-day design charrette in June – ideas that will be considered, as the Official Plan is re-written.

The report recommends more cycling tracks and wide sidewalks for areas such as Lansdowne St., as well as adding small urban squares downtown and “daylighting” Jackson Creek so it can be seen (rather than keeping it buried beneath streets and sidewalks).

The report also offers ideas such as putting a 2.5-storey limit on any new building that might be erected adjacent to Market Hall; that’s meant to preserve views of the clock tower, “the defining element of downtown”.

Sustainable Peterborough Report Card: Councillors will receive an annual report card that rates its efforts toward environmental sustainability.

Key accomplishments for the city for 2017 include the introduction of a new tree bylaw that bans the removal of healthy trees on private property without a permit, and the new LED lighting retrofit at the Memorial Centre.

Sustainable Peterborough is a local partnership of community groups, citizens, businesses, local government and First Nations.

Councillors meet at City Hall at 5:30 p.m. Monday.