Raise the Hammer

The following was posted on the My Stoney Creek Blog July 6, 2011. I submitted this to Mr. McGreal but hasn't to my knowledge been made available to readers of this blog.

"As a result of discussion on Raise the Hammer concerning LRT that had begun with this Spec article, I was prompted to get in touch with Councillor Clark for some clarification on quotes such as this:

"Clark says the city’s first nodes and corridors land use study that looks at planning for high- and mid-rise development along Queenston, Main and King streets from Eastgate Square to McMaster University (dubbed the B-Line after the HSR express bus line) should be focused instead on Rymal Road, where he says development is happening without any sort of plan in place."

Here's what he had to say in an email correspondence:

"The City is about to start the next phase of our urban official plan process which is the planning for Nodes and Corridors.

There are a number of Nodes and Corridors that need to be completed: including but not limited to Upper James, Rymal, James Street, Lower Centennial Parkway, Fennell, and the B- Line. Staff brought forward the B-Line as the first Corridor to be planned. They argued that their decision had nothing to do with the LRT. Yet, upon further discussion, we learned that the B-Line was not the planning staffs first choice. In fact, the only reason it was pushed forward was that they could use money from the LRT project.

The facts are that the council has not adopted or set any principles for corridor planning. James Street and Centennial have a sense of urgency since Go Transit has indicated their preference for access points at those locations. Upper James has merit for inclusion as a preference because of the development as well as Rymal.

Here were some of my questions.... Why isn't council setting the priorities? Why have we not had a status update on LRT since the beginning of the year? Why have we not had an update on the status the $3 million LRT fund? Why are our planning priorities being sidelined for LRT that may or may not come? What is the status on the funding request to pay for LRT? How much will Hamilton have to contribute?

Ultimately, we need answers to these and other questions before anyone makes a decision.

To be very clear, Council has not approved LRT. Council approved designating LRT as the preferred option for the City and directed staff to develop the business case and requisite assessments. At the time, council supported the concept to get the data required to make a decision. The province gave us $3 million to complete the studies.

Nobody on council has stated that they oppose LRT or that we are reconsidering. We are acting with all due diligence, waiting for a decision from the province on funding at which point we must make a final decision.

Respectfully, proponents of LRT are over-reacting to councillor's rationale, reasonable and appropriate questions."