The City/TTC convened a meeting last evening, April 5, 2006, of their Community Design Consultation Group to inform them of the detailed civil and urban design for Contract 3. Here's what we learned:

- The City/TTC are in negotiation with the contractors to restart Contract 1 and to award Contract 2. Any renegotiations for Contract 1 (Yonge to Avenue Rd) and Contract 2 (Avenue Rd. to Tweedsmuir Av) must still go to the Works Committee and Council for approval.

- Contract 3 (Tweedsmuir to 50m west of Vaughan) was added for operational reasons, "to provide the TTC with the flexibility to resume service from the St.Clair West subway station east to Yonge." (This issue was not considered before?)

- No cost analysis was undertaken to demonstrate a cost/benefit associated with this significant change to the previous construction plan.

- There is insufficient distance between Bathurst and Vaughan to construct a raised barrier with the associated undulating track. Therefore, the tracks will be at grade from the subway portal to 50m west of Vaughan, with 150mm barrier curbs installed to ensure exclusive streetcar use. (This design was not considered in the environmental study.)

- Between Bathurst and 50m west of Vaughan there is not enough space for the centre poles in the ROW, therefore TTC support poles will be located on the north and south sides of St.Clair on the sidewalk with wires running to the centre of the street for the streetcars. (So, although the hydro wires will be undergrounded in that same area, there will still be overhead TTC wires.)

- Toronto Hydro will underground their wires from Bathurst to Vaughan because, "Severe reduction in sidewalk width will make it very difficult for Toronto Hydro to maintain the required minimum clearance from the existing buildings." BUT, the TTC will be able to install their poles on the same sidewalk because, "the TTC does not have the same restrictive regulations, and has greater flexibility in the placement of the poles".

- Undergrounding the hydro wires from Vaughan Road to Gunns Road is "still on the table", the TTC is still in negotiations with Toronto Hydro. (The cost to underground from Yonge to Vaughan is estimated as $6.222M, the cost to underground from Yonge to Gunns Road is estimated as $22.865M. The additional cost would be born by the City.)

- The restrictions that apply for left turning that now exist at Vaughan and St.Clair will be reversed.

- The pedestrian crosswalks located at Vaughan and St.Clair will be straightened to be perpendicular to St.Clair, rather than angled with Vaughan Road, and will no longer extend from corner to corner.

- The TTC/City are negotiating with the businesses located at the NW corner of Raglan and St.Clair and the NW corner of Vaughan and St.Clair to widen the sidewalks.

- Sidewalk cuts are required at the signalized intersections to accommodate new left-turning/U-turning lanes. The required intersection changes include:

 

	NW now	NW new	NE now	NE new	SW now	SW new	SE now	SE new
Vaughan	4.76 m	4.21 m	4.03 m	4.03 m	4.6 m	3.19 m	4.66 m	4.37 m
Bathurst	4.96 m	4.03 m	2.0 m	2.5 m	4.77 m	3.0 m	4.6 m	3.9 m

 

- The Goldman condo development at Bathurst and St.Clair will be set back at street level to accommodate a wider sidewalk at the NW corner of St.Clair and Bathurst.

- Proposed tree planting at the subway portal in front of Loblaws is not part of this contract and is under discussion with Loblaws.

- There are now 16 trees along the street from Bathurst to 50 m west of Vaughan. The ROW work will require the removal of 8 trees. Eight new trees will be planted on the TTC platforms, and 12 trees will be planted on the north sidewalk, (4 in front of the Goldman condo, and 3 at Raglan, pending the negotiated sidewalk widening).  The plan results in a net increase of 12 trees over the existing number.

- From Yonge to Bathurst, landscaping will be located on private property as the new sidewalks are not sufficiently wide to accommodate a tree trench.

- From Bathurst to Vaughan, both the roadway and the sidewalks will be fully rebuilt. However, west of Vaughan, only intersections will be fully rebuilt; mid-block the roadway outside the streetcar ROW and the sidewalks will remain as they are now.

 

- The Enbridge work, begun in February, will be completed about the end of April.

- Toronto Hydro work will be completed the end of June.

- Contract 3 will be tendered at the end of April.

- The streetcar wires from Bathurst to west of Vaughan will be removed beginning on June 19. Alternative bus service will be in place until November 2006.

- Phase 1 work is scheduled to commence in early July and to be completed in November 2006

- Work west of Bathurst will commence July 17 after the Salsa Festival and the sidewalk sale in July.

 

Many meeting participants expressed concern regarding the sidewalk cuts, and one person suggested a minimum width of 4m. The TTC responded that they were bound by the proposal presented in their environmental study (despite their design revisions), and that the plan is not pedestrian driven.

 

It is again apparent that this plan does not take into consideration that St.Clair is a neighbourhood where people live and work. This ROW plan is driven by TTC operational considerations alone, and not by the needs of transit users and the people of St.Clair. It will not work!

 

In my March 30, 2006 bulletin, I wrote: "...the Goldman development, the 22-story condo approved for the north-west corner of Bathurst and St.Clair. The developer paid Councillor Mihevc $1M under Section 37 of the Planning Act, because the proposal is 3 times the allowable density and 4 times the allowable height."

 

Let me be absolutely clear. The developer did not pay Councillor Mihevc personally. Let me quote from the City of Toronto Staff Report, dated August 30, 2004, page 13:

 

Following negotiations with planning staff and the Ward Councillor, the applicant (The Goldman Group) has offered the City of Toronto a contribution of one million dollars towards the adaptive reuse of the Wychwood Car Barns. The contribution of funds to the City would be in exchange for the requested increase in height and density for the proposal. 

A local resident sent me the following quote:

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

~ Atticus Finch, "To Kill a Mockingbird"

So, let's see this through! This project does not make sense for us, or for the City. Mounting construction costs are just the beginning to be followed by all the costs associated with an inaccessible neighbourhood. So, write or call your MPP and your Councillor and the Mayor. Write or call the media. Let's keep up the pressure!

 

Thanks,

 

Margaret