City staff working to pare cost of Brock Mission project to $7M

It’s still unclear whether the cost to rebuild the Brock Mission can be pared down by city staff to $7 million after the price tag exceeded that this summer by $3.2 million.

The plan had been to put the project to tender this fall — as long as the cost could be reduced to fit council’s budget.

At a city council meeting on Monday, Coun. Keith Riel asked officials from Peterborough Housing Corporation about the plans — and whether it looked as though the rebuild of the emergency shelter can come within budget.

Although the new Brock Mission will be municipally owned, PHC will oversee construction and then manage and maintain the new facility for the city.

Darlene Cook, CEO of PHC, gave councillors an update of the group’s recent work on Monday.

If staff can bring down the cost to rebuild to $7 million, she said, they won’t have to return to city council to ask permission to break ground.

Cook didn’t say whether that’s expected to happen, but she suggested that councillors will hear about the project again soon.

“I think we’re on the road to being able to give you more news about that,” she said.

In other news at Monday’s meeting:

New public works yard

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

The city bought the former Coach Canada property on Webber Ave. 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 St.

In 2016, council expected to spend $17.1 million to renovate the property into a public works yard – but the cost of the project has increased nearly $6 million.

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

On Monday, councillors gave preliminary approval to a staff recommendation to increase the project budget by $1 million (to $23.5 million).

The report explains that the most recent cost overrun of $1 million is due to factors such as soil contamination and poor site drainage.

Official Plan update

Councillors heard a presentation about the city’s new Official Plan. The overhauled plan is expected to be submitted to the provincial government in 2019.

They 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 rewritten.

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).

East City land to be sold

A thin strip of land along the recreational trail off Hunter St. E., in the commercial core of East City, is about to be declared surplus by the city and sold for potential development.

Councillors approved a plan Monday night to sell the vacant land at 115 Hunter St. E. and 124 Robinson St. to Ashburnham Realty and to Graham Hawkins for residential and mixed-use development.

The lands are adjacent to the Rotary trail, a former rail line, just east of the building that houses Matsu Sushi on Hunter St. E.

The property is in a long strip along the trail running south to Robinson St.

The lands have been held by the city for years and have been declared surplus to municipal needs; the city expects to sell the land for about $213,000.

Artsweek

Mayor Daryl Bennett proclaimed Sept. 21 to 30 to be Artsweek in the city.

Artsweek begins Friday, offering 10 days of artistic adventures in music, visual arts, writing, theatre, dance, media arts and performances of all kinds throughout the city and all events are free.