The Blue Mountains council has finally made a decision to proceed to the next stage of the engineering design process to service Peel Street South and the proposed Campus of Care site.
At its meeting on June 11, council voted unanimously in favour of a motion from Coun. Alex Maxwell that directed staff to move the Peel Street servicing project to the 60 per cent design stage. Council’s approval of the resolution brings a close to a debate/discussion that stretched over multiple meetings the past few weeks.
Council approved a resolution that essentially endorsed the entire staff recommendation on the servicing project with one exception – a multi-use trail on Peel Street recommended by staff was removed from the design and replaced with a street with a mountable curb.
Council’s approval came after a discussion that lasted more than three hours.
At the meeting, council was again inundated with delegations about the Peel Street servicing project and the Campus of Care concept.
Council also heard from a number of residents on the topic during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Speakers raised questions about the scope of the Campus of Care project itself, the expense of being required to hook up to municipal services, traffic issues, tree preservation issues and safety issues at the two nearby intersections with Highway 26.
Residents speaking at the meeting also expressed concerns their voices were being ignored in the process.
Town staff delivered a 22-page report that attempted to address the concerns that residents had raised about the project at previous meetings. The report can be found online here.
Maxwell’s resolution on the matter also called for the town to hold conversations with Grey County and the Ministry of Transportation about safety concerns raised over the intersections at Highway 26 and Peel Street and Highway 26 and County Road 113/10th Line.
As part of the resolution, members of council also initially requested that a public meeting about the Campus of Care concept be scheduled to give residents a chance to comment.
“I think it is now the time to listen to the public,” said Coun. Paula Hope.
The public meeting portion of the resolution drew concerns from Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon.
“We’re dealing with servicing in this report,” said Bordignon. “Through the planning process, will there not be public meetings scheduled already?”
CAO Shawn Everitt confirmed that once the formal planning process for the Campus of Care project begins -–at this time, the town has not received a formal application for the project – a public meeting will be part of that process.
“The planning process will actually require a public meeting. That’s where you will start getting into the details (of Campus of Care),” he said.
Council subsequently amended the resolution to call for public meetings as required by the planning act.
The resolution approved by council included:
- A design to fully service Peel Street South (water, wastewater, third party utilities) with watermain replacement only on Alice Street and Baring Street.
- A Peel Street South cross-section within the 20 metre right of way with a mountable curb.
- Replace the deficient watermain on Alice Street with cross-section alternative 2: existing rural cross-section (restoration of disturbed areas) including drainage improvements and intersection improvements at the Alice Street and Lansdowne Street intersection.
- Replace the deficient watermain on Baring Street with cross-section alternative 2: existing rural cross-section (restoration of disturbed areas) as per Baring Street alternative 1 including drainage improvements and intersection improvements at the Baring Street and Peel Street South intersection.
- Approved increasing the engineering contingency by $130,000 to allow for legal surveying, additional communications and other miscellaneous costs.
Prior to council’s vote, Everitt said, should council approve the resolution to move forward with the servicing work, the town should see a planning application for the project soon.
“I suspect the planning process will begin very shortly,” he said.
