A plan to reconstruct Sixth Street left Collingwood councillors with a bitter taste in their mouth as they begrudgingly voted in favour of chopping down 36 trees to make way for sidewalks and bike lanes.
Those three dozen trees are currently standing on the north side of Sixth Street, including14 Silver Maples that are between 60 and 100 years old, a Honey Locust that is about 33 years old and seven Norway Maples between 40 and 60 years old.
And all of them will be cut down to make room for the town’s Sixth Street reconstruction project.
As part of council’s regular meeting on June 3, councillors approved a multi-faceted plan to replace the trees.
The plan is to replace them at a two-to-one ratio and offer new trees for Sixth St. residents to be planted on their private property at no cost to property owners.
However, it didn’t make the news of the necessary tree removal any easier for councillors to bear.
“I’m still gutted that we’re going to have to take these trees down,” said Coun. Kathy Jeffery. “I don’t really care how generational we think this plan is.”
“I’m pretty sure if somebody went into a town like Thornbury and said, we’re going to take 36 trees down on Bruce Street... everybody would have heart failure, which is what I had,” she said.
Town staff took their second kick at the can for their proposed redesign of Sixth St. to add one-way cycling tracks to each side of the street following public outcry over the first design this past fall, which instead included a two-way cycle track.
The 1.3-kilometre stretch of Sixth Street between Hurontario and High Streets is due for watermain replacement to improve water supply and pressure to the western side of Collingwood via the Stewart Road Pump Station, and while the town is making those necessary repairs, it’s reconsidering the streetscape’s current design.
Current project timelines will see the entire project completed by 2030 in a phased approach, with Hurontario to Oak Street expected in 2026 and Oak to High Street expected in 2027.
The street as it stands today has two 3.3-metre-wide vehicular lanes, two 1.5-metre-wide painted, but not signed, bike lanes and a 1.5-metre-wide sidewalk on the north side only.
There were five new designs for the street considered by staff for implementation for the project, however, safety concerns were raised specifically about the town’s original plans to include a two-way bike lane/multi-use trail in the design by both local cycling advocate Justin Jones and the town’s trails and active transportation advisory committee.
This past October, Coun. Deb Doherty put forward a motion calling on staff to go back to the drawing board on the design, to include one-way cycling tracks on either side of the street.
Changes from the previous design shown to councillors late last month included reducing the vehicle lanes from 3.5 to 3.3 metres wide and having 1.5-metre one-direction cycling tracks on each side of the road that are raised and separated from the vehicle lanes.
There will be a grass boulevard on the north side, and a smaller boulevard on the south side. The sidewalk on the north side only will remain.
Mayor Yvonne Hamlin and Coun. Kathy Jeffery both put forward notices of motion at the last meeting in an effort to preserve and replace the tree canopy on the street.
The motion considered by councillors this week calls on town staff to develop a program to replace the trees at a rate of at least double the trees lost, which will include an option for Sixth Street homeowners to request a tree be planted on their private yard, and the town will absorb that cost.
If more area is needed to accommodate all the trees, the town will identify additional streets in the vicinity that would be eligible for a free tree.
Also included in the motion is a request that staff made a recommendation to address tree caliper (trunk size), that will come to council for a decision at a future time.
“The caliper part of this motion is so important because it’s a huge replacement. Even two-to-one might not be enough,” said Jeffery. “We have to start thinking about all our plans at the same time. This has become cyclists versus pedestrians versus trees. We’ve declared a climate emergency, yet we’re going to remove 36 trees.”
Coun. Christopher Baines noted that only three of the 36 trees to be removed are dying ash trees.
“The trees are owned by everybody on Sixth Street – north and south,” he said, adding that perhaps residents on the south side of the street should also be offered free new trees for their properties.
Coun. Chris Potts worried about how the town would be able to make sure the trees they provided free of charge stayed up.
“If we plant a tree on private property, and five years from now a new homeowner pops up and wants to (take it out), is there going to be something in here where they can’t remove them?” he asked. “I would hate to plant 25 trees on private property and have 20 of them removed.”
Back in August 2022, councillors voted to spend $100,000 to hire a consultant to inform council on how Collingwood could better protect tree canopy. The move came on the heels of council being informed that of the 41 recommendations in the town's urban forest management plan, only one was underway: a review of the Official Plan to develop new policies that support the urban forest.
Staff at that time said the delay in accomplishing the other recommendations in the plan was “a result of resource constraints and other pressing priorities (e.g., COVID-19 response and recovery),” according to their August 2022 report.
This week, the chief administrative officer, Sonya Skinner said the delay has continued as the town had difficulty hiring a new forestry co-ordinator, which had been approved through the 2024 budget, and would oversee planning of the town’s forests and trees.
Part of their work would be coming up with a new private property tree bylaw, which would set rules in town on when and how a tree could be removed.
“That is what we’ve been waiting for to move this forward again,” said Skinner.
“The reality is, some of the trees might come down. We hope none of them do, but you never know,” she said. “In general, we’re looking for people who will make a reasonable commitment to keep the trees.”
Coun. Deb Doherty put forward an amendment to include that trees will be replaced at a two-to-one ratio or using a science-based formula so the net environmental benefit is not lost, which was passed unanimously by councillors.
“This hasn’t been an easy decision, but I do believe at the end of the day we’re going to have an awesome standard in place for separated bike lanes. I’m certain we’ll end up with more, healthier trees,” said Mayor Yvonne Hamlin.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the motion for tree replacement for Sixth Street. Coun. Brandon Houston and Coun. Rob Ring were absent.
