The March 23 Public Open House Meeting held at Howard Public School, was part of the provincial Environmental Assessment (EA) process, whose purpose is mainly and merely to report on the environmental impact of permanently making Roncesvalles a two-lane road, from a four-lane road. Given that it currently operates as a two-laner for the most part, there would be little impact, if any. Once the EA process is completed this spring, the City will have the authority to consider various design options, such as making the parking lanes permanent, adding bumpouts or bike lanes, or none of the above.
The EA process does not concern itself with fine design details or drawings, and so none were presented (to the understandable disappointment of some). The presenters might have done a better job at explaining what the EA was for (not much), and what it was not for (presenting detailed design plans and gathering meaningful public input). Better images will hopefully come later in the parallel, detailed design process. This second, far more interesting process has proceeded informally for the last few years, and will continue more formally starting in the fall, facilitated by Councillor Gord Perks.
There were a number of EA meeting attendees who may have left the meeting with a false impression of what was presented. Some are people who simply have car-oriented values, and who do not support permanently keeping Roncesvalles a two-lane street. Fair enough. But I have alse heard from people who greatly support reprioritizing the street in favor of transit riders and pedestrians. They too left the meeting with the wrong impression, and I have to say, I do not blame them. The presentation was not very clear.
So to be clear, the City needs this EA to do ANY of the following:
- make the parking lanes permanent, allowing the City to install silva soil cells underneath, which allows the City to plant healthy trees that will grow to maturity
- widen the Roncesvalles sidewalk into the parking lane, at any location using any design
- create bumpouts, using either Alternative #3 from Open House #1, or Preferred Option #2 from Open House #2, or any other configuration
- implement any other design that reduces the street to two driving lanes
ACTION
Whether or not you support the intent of the points above, it's important to complete a Comment Sheet, which you can mail or fax back as per the instructions on the sheet.
Please review or join the latest discussions:
View meeting materials posted by the on the City's EA page (scroll to Public Open House #2).
View the latest "scroll," showing the proposed revised sidewalk plan for the full length of Roncesvalles. A PDF copy of the full-length sidewalk plan for Roncesvalles is posted on the BIA server. It's in two parts: part one is the southern half, and part two is the north.