Resolution at music centre site

By Doug Hallett, Guelph Tribune
Sep 11, 2009

Almost all the trees near the Guelph Youth Music Centre parking lot are to be saved under a new plan that would see the lot expanded only slightly.

“In less than a month we’ve gone a great distance,” said Coun. Ian Findlay, who chaired a group of citizens chosen to work on a new plan after an expansion plan outlined by city staff in August drew an angry response.

The group endorsed a conceptual plan Wednesday night that’s also acceptable to the Guelph Youth Music Centre and the adjoining Navy League of Canada branch, and that city staff are “comfortable with,” Findlay said Thursday.

Staff will now “formalize” the plan, hoping to get the parking lot redone this fall as originally planned, he said in an interview.

The new plan calls for a parking lot that’s similar in size to the current one, but with a different shape and with delineated parking spots. It would be paved with asphalt and have a few more parking spots than the current gravel lot, which doesn’t have marked spaces.

Instead of the more than 60 parking spaces in the original plan, which would have meant the removal of several healthy, mature trees, the new plan calls for 42 spaces and saves almost all the trees, Findlay said. Removal of one healthy black walnut tree is “unavoidable,” he said, but an Austrian pine that will also need to be removed is “non-native and diseased.” As well, a tree in front of the music centre entrance is unhealthy and needs to be removed for safety reasons.

To help make up for fewer additional parking spots, the city is talking to Guelph Transit about the possibility of running buses closer to the Guelph Youth Music Centre and is looking at other parking options in the area, including the possibility of on-street parking on Cardigan Street, Findlay said.

The new plan eliminates the storm sewer and catch basin drainage system originally proposed for the parking lot expansion. Instead, water would drain off the parking lot to a spot to the east where grass would cover crushed stone that would “contain and filter the water before it goes into the river,” he said.

Residents on the focus group wanted to avoid storm sewers because they didn’t want the project to be “over-engineered,” he said. “They wanted it to be a less intrusive design on the land.”

The group also told city staff they want LED (light-emitting diode) lights used on the parking lot, which are more energy-efficient and also provide more options for dimming of lights, Findlay said. They want LED lights with a “yellow, amber tone,” which might respond to motion sensors so they’re not at full intensity if there’s no activity in the parking lot.

Two outstanding issues are making sure the lighting that’s chosen is acceptable to nearby residents and dealing with landscaping of the site, Findlay said. The group will meet with city staff at a later date to deal with landscaping, which probably won’t get done this year.

The group looked at alternatives to paving the parking lot with asphalt, Findlay said, but a permeable surface that was examined was found not to be suitable to a northern climate. Such a surface could get plugged in winter by salt and sand, leading to “excessive” costs for maintaining it in good working order, he said.

Findlay said he’d been “fascinated to see the level of commitment” by members of the group, which met about twice a week for the last month.

Successful resolution

Guelph Tribune
Editorial
Sep 11, 2009

The new conceptual plan for upgrading the parking lot in Goldie Mill Park near the Guelph Youth Music Centre, which was endorsed this week, appears to be a big victory for the passion that Guelph residents bring to civic affairs, especially when environmental issues are concerned.

The first chance that people had to weigh in on the issue came at an outdoor meeting hastily called by Ward 2 councillor Ian Findlay, which took place in the parking lot late in the afternoon of Aug. 5.There were groans from the crowd when a city planner said tender bids had already been received from contractors for the project, which involved cutting down big, healthy trees to make room for an expanded parking lot. But the people didn’t roll over. They kept expressing many objections, long past when the meeting was supposed to end. When a revised plan presented by staff at a subsequent meeting on Aug. 13 failed to satisfy people, a focus group of residents chaired by Findlay was set up to try to resolve the issue along with city staff. They met about twice a week for a month to come up with the new plan, which is detailed in today’s Tribune.

The fears expressed Aug. 5 –about the trees, about excessive lighting, about whether a storm sewer is really needed, about whether so many extra parking spaces are really needed –have all been addressed. The people who stood up to city hall on this issue should be proud.

Parking lot ‘juggling’ continues

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.

Group agrees to six key concerns – Tribune

Guelph Tribune
Aug 25, 2009

A public liaison committee to find a consensus on a proposed parking lot expansion project at the Guelph Youth Music Centre has held its first meeting.

The committee, chaired by Ward 2 councillor Ian Findlay, consists of six residents, two representatives each from the music centre, the nearby navy league and the city, and one consultant, said Findlay.

“I had to turn down many other people,” Findlay said of the interest in being part of the committee.

It was formed to let neighbours and city staff work together on the project, which calls for an expansion and upgrade to the parking lot on Cardigan Street.

The committee identified six main issues they need to reach a consensus on, said Findlay.

They are the surface of the parking lot, drainage, trees, the project’s environmental impact, parking capacity and alternative transportation, and lighting.

He said the committee will meet twice a week. The city hopes to get at least some work done on the project during this construction season.

Yes you can fight city hall – Guelph Mercury

Guelph Mercury
August 20, 2009

It’s said you can’t fight city hall.

That’s not true.

Such fights take place all the time. Winning them can be another matter entirely.

It has been an interesting recent spell for the City of Guelph in high profile tiffs this summer. While the city would have you believe its position was upheld in this month’s injunction wrangling before Superior Court Justice Douglas Gray, the best it can equitably term that battle — for now — is a draw. The protesters who forced the court action at the Hanlon Creek Business Park site wanted to halt work at the site. They managed that — for at least 30 days. Look beyond the city’s myriad spins and public relations efforts to assert otherwise.

On the Guelph Youth Music Centre parking lot file, city stakeholders have been much more candid.

Kudos to Mayor Karen Farbridge, who went so far as to admit on her blog the original civic proposal on the matter amounted to “a mistake . . . in terms of consultation and the original design.”

It’s OK and it’s leadership to be encouraged for municipal leaders to admit error when circumstances warrant it and to be responsive about how to fix things once that’s noted and acknowledged.

The parking lot furor and resolution is a great example of how city hall disputes can go. In a perfect world, municipalities wouldn’t propose flawed things or would recall them to be reworked at the first public mention of the inadequacies of such notions.

But public bodies are made up of people and people will make mistakes. Such bodies must also take on contentious stuff and can’t please everyone in doing so.

The need to improve and expand upon parking at the music centre is widely accepted as necessary. This will happen in a smarter way because the city listened to local stakeholders. Applause is also due to Coun. Ian Findlay for listening to his constituents and helping to bring together a better remedy for this issue. He demonstrated leadership and a fine example of public service in his handling of the case.

So, have hope. You can battle city hall — and win, here, at least sometimes.