Guelph Tribune
Sep 01, 2009
A focus group set up by the city to look at issues related to expanding the parking lot in Goldie Mill Park holds what may be its final meeting Wednesday, with the city still hoping to build the expanded lot this fall.
“We are making some progress, I would say, but we still have things to resolve before coming up with a revised plan that would meet community needs,” city parks planner Helen White said Monday. “It’s a bit of a juggling act to see what we can do, what’s feasible,” she said.
City staff hope the Goldie Mill Park Focus Group, which meets again Wednesday Sept. 2 at 7 p. m. at city hall, can reach consensus this week on a new concept.
Staff would like to see consensus by the end of this week on a concept that staff would then use to work on a detailed design.
“If it is too great a change, we may have to re-tender it,” White said, but staff are hoping this won’t be necessary. Bids for the parking lot job were received in early August, but the job hasn’t yet been awarded.
Some residents on the Goldie Mill Park Focus Group have presented a draft proposal for the parking lot, and city staff have been looking at its feasibility, White said.
She said Coun. Ian Findlay, who organized an Aug. 5 public meeting where the city’s initial plan for expanding the parking lot beside the Guelph Youth Music Centre came under attack, took the lead in choosing members of the focus group.
The group was created after a revised plan for the parking lot proposed by city staff, which would have saved more mature trees on the site, failed to satisfy residents at a second public meeting on Aug. 13.
The focus group’s Sept. 2 meeting, like others it has held, is open to the public, although space is limited in the city hall meeting room where it’s being held, White said.
City staff still hope to get the parking lot expanded this year, but if not they will look at doing something about drainage problems that cause safety issues. “We are going to try to avoid going through another winter in its current state, if at all possible,” White said.
