Council approves transit terminal move to West End
Opponents says relocation a blow to one of the city’s ‘have-not’ neighbourhoods
The $1.6-million plan to relocate the west-end bus terminal to the campus of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is speeding ahead, despite hard lobbying by the councillor for the area who campaigned to keep it at College Avenue. “Nothing’s perfect here, but we need to have a better location and a better terminal,” Ward 10 Coun. Jim Morrison said Monday night, following several hours of delegations and council debate. Several weeks earlier, the city’s environment and transportation committee made a recommendation to defer the issue at the urging of Ward 2 Coun. Fabio Costante, so the location could be studied as part of a review of the entire transit system that’s due in the fall.
But in a 6-4 recorded vote, council voted to not defer and then voted to move forward with the new terminal.
A $100,000 federal grant is dependent on the terminal being built by next spring. Hotel-Dieu Grace is providing the location for $1 a year, complete with access to washrooms, a coffee shop and other amenities.
“I think this is the right thing to do for the system, I think it will make Transit Windsor better,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens, who said that some claims made by hospital site opponents — about safety concerns, a lack of consultation, and that the relocation would hurt poor people in the west end who rely on a transit terminal in the Sandwich area — were “absolutely false.”
Voting against the deferral and subsequently for the move to the hospital site were: Morrison, Chris Holt, Irek Kusmierczyk, Ed Sleiman, Fred Francis and Dilkens. Voting for the deferral were Costante, Kieran McKenzie, Rino Bortolin and Gary Kaschak. Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac was absent. The mayor also said the hospital location would help as Transit Windsor makes efforts to create a regional system including municipalities in the county.
“This will be an important hub for us to expand to Essex County,” Dilkens said.
While campaigning for the Oct. 22 election, Costante said he talked to thousands of west-end residents. “And 95 per cent of folks were opposed.” Holding the staff report recommending the hospital location, he said: “None of that is reflected here.”
“Why are we doing this before the master plan is complete?” he asked, suggesting he was willing to risk the $100,000 grant if it meant getting the right location. More than a dozen people appeared as delegates, mostly opposing the move.
“This proposal is taking from a have-not neighbourhood and giving it to a have neighbourhood,” said Tammy Murray, a four-decade-long resident of the west end who doesn’t own a car and relies on public transit.
The area has already lost elementary schools, the College Avenue Community Centre, Forster high school and other services, she said.
“We need to do better for our west-end residents.” Members of a group called Windsor Transit Watch presented data that showed the College Avenue location is surrounded by a neighbourhood that has a has higher population density, lower income levels and higher transit usage than the residential areas around the hospital. They argued it should not be relocated from an area that uses it and needs it. West-end resident Carolyn Taylor noted that the College Avenue location is near two large Windsor housing projects as well as many apartment buildings. The area has one in three children living in poverty, she said, calling it one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country. Why would council want to take away services from such an area, she asked.
“To placate the notion that the terminal needs to move is simply wrong.”
Although she agreed the west end needs a new transit terminal, Mary Ann Cuderman, former chair of the Sandwich Towne Business Improvement Association, said she questions “who is being served,” by the move.
The College Avenue neighbourhood is one of the most impoverished areas in the city, she said. “It would behoove the city to over-invest there.”
She said the Hotel-Dieu Grace site is in one of the most affluent areas in the west side. “This is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.”
And people living near the hospital don’t want it, said Ron Riberty, who’s lived in the residential area for 30 years and said people are concerned that a bus terminal would bring increased noise, pollution and traffic problems. The College Avenue location is located further away from residences, he said.
“I believe a bus terminal should not be placed within hundreds of feet of residential property.” Sonya Skillings, who also lives near the hospital, said that traffic is already a problem for pedestrians and children going to nearby schools.
“Adding that number of buses (192 per day) would only worsen the situation,” she told councillors.
But west-end resident and self-described “transit enthusiast” Bernie Drouillard favoured the new transit terminal location. It will mean some of the city’s busiest routes will be going to the hospital, visited by 218,000 people annually.
“I know (Transit Windsor officials) have tried to find the best location, and for the moment, this is the best one,” he said.