City moves forward on transportation plan
The city took a step on Monday toward a new transportation master plan that will delve into every aspect of getting around Peterborough for the next 20 years — including whether The Parkway extension can eventually go forward.
At a committee meeting on Monday, councillors gave preliminary approval to start the search for a consultant to write the plan.
A request-for-proposal process will be launched in January, if the plan gets final approval at a council meeting Dec. 9; the idea would be to hire a consultant to get started by April.
The plan would not be expected done until November 2021 (following what a new city staff report calls “broad public consultation”).
The report is expected to prescribe all the city’s road improvements, new facilities and policies for the next two decades at least.
Coun. Henry Clarke said he’s determined that the plan won’t sit on a shelf gathering dust once it’s written.
“For once, let’s actually follow the results of a master transportation plan,” he said.
The city’s master transportation plan hasn’t been updated since 2012, states the staff report — and back then, population forecasts predicted Peterborough would have 88,000 people by 2031.
But according to Statistics Canada, Peterborough’s population had already exceeded 84,000 by 2017.
The master transportation plan is expected to draw information from a series of other studies that are already underway, such as a review of the city’s transit system, a cycling network study and an east side transportation study.
Council has already approved a budget of $900,000 for the transportation master plan, but on Monday councillors will be asked to take an additional $225,000 from reserves to potentially put toward the project in case extra money is needed along the way.
Edgewater Boulevard
Speed limit concerns in a waterfront neighbourhood were also discussed at council Monday.
The speed limit is going to be reduced soon along Edgewater Boulevard in East City, and parking restrictions will go in effect in certain places spots the boulevard as well.
On Monday, city councillors gave preliminary approval to reduce the speed limit from 50 km/h to 40 km/h along Edgewater Blvd. between Maria Street and Wallace Street.
A city staff report also recommended no parking near the CP Rail bridge or on the curve where the emergency access roadway connects with Edgewater Boulevard, and councillors approved that too.
A ratification vote is needed at a council meeting Dec. 9.
City staff recommended these measures be taken due to poor visibility along the boulevard. The situation was brought to city staff’s attention after residents petitioned for parking restrictions, earlier this year.
Edgewater Boulevard is the only access route in and out of a neighbourhood known as Burnham Point.
The city staff report states there’s been three reported collisions on Edgewater in the last four years.