Planning, Environment and Water Advisory Committee

0:02indigenous histories. We are guests here and we should reflect upon the responsibility to care for this land to people who live here today and the generations to come.

0:11If our actions today can move us towards reconciliation, we should take pause and make those decisions with intention and gratitude.

0:19This place we call Guelph has served as traditional lands and place of refuge for many peoples over time.

0:25More specifically, the Adirondurong, Adirondurong and the Adishoni.

0:32This land is held as treaty lands in territory of the Mississaugas and the Triton First Nation.

0:37Guelph lies directly adjacent to the Alden tract and is part of the longest established traditional land of the Grand for the six nations of the Grand.

0:45Many nations in the U.S. and Métis peoples who have come from Turtle Island called Guelph on today.

0:50Anybody have to disclose any pecuniary interest or general nature thereof?

0:59Seeing none.

1:01So we have the minutes from meeting of April 14th.

1:07Any errors or missions, questions at this point?

1:11Seeing none, somebody would like to move.

1:16Acceptance of minutes.

1:18Karen.

1:20Seconder.

1:22Raj. All in favor?

1:24Thank you.

1:26Okay. Now on to the business of the meeting.

1:31We have a presentation on the Victoria Road and Storm Road Environmental Assessment presentation by Nancy, project manager with transportation planning.

1:42So Nancy, if you're ready, please take it away.

1:45Sure. Just give me a moment and I'll share my screen for you folks.

1:49Can everyone see my screen?

1:54Yes.

1:56Excellent. All right then.

1:58Welcome everyone and thank you for coming to my presentation about the Victoria Road and Stone Road Environmental Assessment. This project will study and recommend preferred solutions and preferred designs for the roads and bridges at Victoria Road and Stone Road East to support future travel needs previously identified in the Guelph Transportation Master Plan and the Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan.

2:19This project will follow the process outlined in the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Act, which is a provincially regulated process that ensures that all reasonable options are considered while minimizing potential environmental impacts and incorporating public input into the decision making process.

2:36Phases one and two of the process were completed as part of the Guelph Transportation Master Plan in 2022, which recommended widening of Victoria Road and Stone Road.

2:45The current Victoria Road and Stone Road Schedule C class EA will complete phases three and four of the environmental assessment process and will recommend how these roads should be widened.

2:57Thus, the problem and opportunity statement for the project identifies that this EA study will develop the preferred road design concept to meet future anticipate traffic and transit needs using a complete streets approach,

3:09implement walking and cycling facilities, and finally upgrade stormwater management facilities to meet the requirements of the 2023 stormwater management master plan.

3:20Anyway, in addition to the Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan and the Guelph Transportation Master Plan, this EA is also informed by the Complete Streets Design Guideline, the Guelph Water and Wastewater Servicing Master Plan, and the Stormwater Management Master Plan.

3:35Together, these three documents will help to provide some best practice guidelines on how to design streets to meet Guelph's transportation waste water and stormwater management needs.

3:48So, because this is an EA, we have to first establish a baseline for the natural environment and cultural heritage conditions before evaluating the potential impacts of different alternatives.

3:59We'll start with existing natural environmental conditions here, where field investigations were undertaken to characterize the natural environments in the study area last year.

4:09This will be documented in the upcoming natural environment report, but just to summarize, natural features in the study area here include the Aramalsa River and its associated valley, flood plain, slope and wetlands, significant woodlands, and habitats for species at risk.

4:25There are also three identified opportunities for wildlife crossing here on Stone Road, Victoria Road, and on College Avenue near Victoria.

4:35Cultural heritage conditions were also documented in the cultural heritage environmental report.

4:44Built heritage resources in the study area include individual buildings like the Frost Building, while cultural heritage landscapes in the study area include landscapes like the Arboretum, the Cotton Gold Fields, and the Aramalsa River, which is a Canadian heritage river tributary.

5:00A Stage 1 archaeological investigation was also undertaken and found that most of the study area had been previously disturbed and does not retain any archaeological potential.

5:10However, some parts of the study area do show potential for archaeological resources, so we will be undertaking a Stage 2 archaeological assessment as we develop the preferred solution for this project.

5:23So now that we've looked at the existing land use context in the study area, we should also look at the future land use context.

5:31So improvements on Victoria Road and Stone Road will support growth in the future Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan area.

5:39And although this area around Stone Road and Victoria Road is currently quite rural, the area will grow more urbanized with time.

5:46The GID will be accessed through new intersections on Victoria Road south and Stone Road east and will include residential, mixed use and employment land uses that will support thousands of new homes and jobs in the city.

5:57Different areas on Stone Road and Victoria Road also have different design needs and challenges.

6:04So for example, on Victoria Road north of the river, which is the first of the four little pictures on the right hand side here, we have some property constraints with residential buildings on one side and commercial buildings on the other.

6:18Whereas on Victoria Road south of the river, which is the second picture on the right hand column, we have some sensitive land uses in the Arboretum on one side and the future GID.

6:28So for this analysis, we divided up our study area into four different segments and developed a set of alternatives for each study area to reflect their unique challenges and requirements.

6:43So after we developed the alternatives, which you'll see soon, they were evaluating according to the following evaluation criteria.

6:52The criteria can be divided roughly into five main categories, that being of the natural environments, cultural heritage, social environment, financial and technical factors.

7:05So here is our first section in our study area, which we'll discuss here today.

7:11And it is Victoria Road north of the Aramalsa River. Under existing conditions, this part of the study area has two lanes in each direction, a sidewalk on the west side of the road, and intermittently near the plaza near New York's Road.

7:28There is also a discontinuous sidewalk on the east side of the road as well.

7:32Victoria Road is classified according to the Complete Streets Design Guideline as a residential boulevard, and concept two shows a typical cross section for a residential boulevard with wide planted boulevards,

7:45a cyclotrack and sidewalk on both sides of the street.

7:49However, you'll remember from about two sides ago that we are very constrained in this area of Victoria Road north as we've got residential buildings very close to the property line on one side and commercial buildings on the other side.

8:03So if we were to implement concept two, this would have some significant impacts to the social environments and incur a high cost relative to other alternatives.

8:13So we tried to develop concept three here, which is where we try to fit in all the elements of a complete street within the existing property limits.

8:22The elements would just fit, but it would bring the sidewalk almost right up to residents front steps, which would have significant impacts on the usability of people who rely on front yard parking and residential comfort,

8:34both of which would cause the alternative to rank poorly in terms of social environments.

8:39The very narrow width of the cyclotrack would also provide a poor level of service for cyclists on Victoria Road, which is important because Victoria Road is intended to be part of the city's cycling spine network.

8:53You folks might recall that there's also a bit of a steep grade on this part of Victoria Road, and this very narrow width would not be ideal for cyclists who are who might need more space when either traveling uphill or trying to control their movements downhill.

9:09Finally, there's some hydro poles on the west side of the street, which would need to be relocated to avoid potential conflicts if we were to go to concept go with concept three.

9:18So because we are very, very constrained on space on this section of Victoria Road, we developed concept four. This has a modified complete streets cross section with a total of four vehicle lanes sidewalk on both sides at a northbound cycle track on the east side of the road.

9:38You might ask where is the southbound cycle track? And the answer to that is that it would be detouring through an adjacent laneway and through Aramasa River Park before rejoining the facilities on Victoria Road.

9:55Using this option allows us to avoid a lot of costs associated with hydro pole relocation and having a full width cycle track, and it also allows us to have a full width cycle track for the cycling spine network.

10:07Concept four is able to achieve the active transportation objectives for this project and also scores well on social environment impacts and costs.

10:17So it is the preferred alternative for the first segment in our study area.

10:23The second segment under analysis is Victoria Road south of the Aramasa River. Under existing conditions, the road has a rural cross section with one vehicle lane in each direction and bike lanes in the shoulder.

10:38Victoria Road south of the Aramasa River is classified as a residential boulevard under the complete streets design guideline.

10:47Correspondingly, concept two here shows the full complete streets design for a residential boulevard, including two vehicle lanes in each direction, wide planted boulevards with space for trees and utilities, and sidewalk and cycle track on both sides of the road.

11:03We also developed concept three and concept four, but reduced the boulevard width down to a minimum of one meter.

11:12This reduction in the total cross section width is intended to reduce potential land impacts at narrower parts of Victoria Road, including sensitive environments and significant woodlands in the arboretum.

11:25However, a reduced boulevard reduces the amount of space available for tree plantings, which can affect the city's ability to meet urban tree canopy targets.

11:35A reduced boulevard can also affect cyclists' comfort by reducing their buffer from vehicle traffic.

11:42So we experimented a little bit with the alignments, and we did actually find that concept two was best able to meet the policy and transportation objectives on this segment of Victoria Road.

11:54The right of way on Victoria Road south of the Aramasa River is actually very wide, and it can fit on the elements in concept two with minimal anticipated impacts to the natural environment, social environments, or cultural heritage attributes in the area.

12:10There are some more constrained areas, especially near some of the intersections, where we would like to avoid impacts to the arboretum as much as possible, in which case elements of concept three with the reduced boulevard can be implemented at pinch points to avoid grating impacts outside of the right of way.

12:30So overall, for the segment of Victoria Road south of the Aramasa River, concept two is the preferred solution with concept three to be implemented at pinch points.

12:42Our third road segment under consideration is Stone Road between the Victoria Road and GID Street A, which is a future street approximately 375 meters west of Victoria Road.

12:58Under existing conditions, this part of the road has two lanes in each direction, as well as on street bike lanes. Stone Road west of GID Street A is classified as a residential boulevard as per the Complete Streets Design Guideline.

13:13The typical cross section of a residential boulevard is shown in concept two, and as before this has two vehicle lanes in each direction, beautiful wide planted boulevards, and sidewalk and cycle track on both sides of the road.

13:27Concept three is similar, but reduces the boulevard width down to a minimum of one meter, and this option is intended to reduce potential impacts to the social environment, natural environment, and cultural heritage.

13:41However, it does come at the cost of having a little bit of reduced space for tree plantings, and it also reduces these available buffer between the cycle tracks and traffic.

13:53So it turns out, again, that the available right of way on this segment of Stone Road is quite wide and can generally fit concept two with minimal alterations.

14:06Thus, concept two was chosen as the preferred alternative because it best fulfills the streets active transportation objectives, while minimizing potential impacts on the surrounding environments.

14:17Elements of concept three with a reduced boulevard can be used at pinch points near intersections to reduce grading impacts outside of the right of way.

14:29And at last, our final segment here, as in the Victoria Road and Stone Road project is Stone Road east of G. I. D. Street A, all the way towards Watson Parkway.

14:41This part of the road is currently one lane in each direction with the shoulder bike lane.

14:46The road is classified as an employment boulevard, which would mean that as per the complete streets design guideline, it would have two lanes in each direction and a multi-use path on both sides, as shown in concept two on this slide.

15:01However, it was found in our traffic study that widening to four lanes is actually not required on this segment of Stone Road.

15:09One lane in each direction was found to be sufficient to carry the projected traffic.

15:14Thus, concept three was developed, which includes an urban cross section, one lane each direction, and multi-use on both sides of the road.

15:23However, concept three requires a widening of Stone Road Bridge, which would entail additional construction cost.

15:31So, concept four was then developed to try to avoid any widening impacts to the Stone Road Bridge.

15:38And this includes a multi-use path on the north side of Stone Road, which provides access to the main trip generators in the area, including the feature 80 Dunlop Transit Facility and Phase 4 of the G. I. D.

15:51Development.

15:53Because this does not require widening of Stone Road Bridge, concept four is the least costly of the four alternatives and is able to fulfill the after transportation objectives on this segment.

16:07While minimizing potential impacts to the natural environment, cultural heritage, and the social environment.

16:13So, concept four is the preferred alternative for the eastern segment of Stone Road.

16:18And in addition to the road segments that we just discussed there, the EA study recommends the following treatments at intersections and crossings in the study area.

16:31For example, one of these is a new roundabout at Watson Parkway and Stone Road, which is intended to reduce the potential severity and frequency of collisions while also reducing vehicle delays and emissions.

16:44Existing and proposed signalized intersections will receive protected intersection upgrades to help facilitate pedestrian and cyclist crossings.

16:52And finally, a new trail crossing at the Royal Recreational Trail and Victoria Road south of the Aramasa River is recommended as per the trails master plan.

17:01I'll also note that some of our analysis is still in progress as part of the ongoing traffic impact study, and that includes evaluating the feasibility of a potential additional trail crossing on Stone Road west of the Aramasa River to connect future potential city trails.

17:21And also a potential pedestrian crossing or intersection on Victoria Road between York Road and the Aramasa River.

17:32This would be near the ethnic supermarket plaza if that helps for you folks to visualize that as well.

17:41Anyways, these items are still being analyzed, but they will be incorporated into the preliminary design if recommended by the traffic study.

17:49So that brings us almost to the end of our presentation here. The next steps in our study are to review the feedback that we're going to receive from the public, the technical agencies, and First Nations, including feedback that I'm hoping to receive from the committee here,

18:06as well as feedback from our upcoming public open house on June 11.

18:10After we have received the feedback, we will confirm and refine the preferred designs for Victoria Road and Stone Road.

18:16And then we will prepare the environmental study report to fully assess and identify impacts and mitigation measures associated with a preliminary preferred design.

18:25The report is slated for completion near the beginning of 2027, at which point we will issue the notice of study completion and proceed to design and construction as planned in a capital budget.

18:37And that concludes my presentation and I would be really happy to hear any questions or feedback that you folks have at this time. Thank you.

18:46Thank you very much, Nancy, for a very detailed presentation.

18:56Does any of the committee members have any questions or comments or Nancy? Yes.

19:07So one thing that I really liked about this plan is the pedestrian crossing that's proposed. I think that was, is that close to where the trail crosses over Victoria, just south of the river?

19:20Your talk time. You're talking about the trail crossing on Victoria Road just south of the bridge, right? Yes. That would be a connection of the Royal Recreational Trail, or the Radio Line Trail.

19:34Sometimes it's called, but yes, this is part of the trails master plan. And as part of our traffic analysis, we are confirming the feasibility and we will be implementing it into the preliminary design.

19:45Okay. Yeah, I just would say I strongly support that because I know there's a lot of Jay walking in that area.

19:52Yeah, I guess you sort of alluded to it. Just how you would potentially connect the bike trails that are close to the bridge crossing on Stone Road, kind of where there's existing trail, like the radio trail that comes out at Stone.

20:21Thought into like how that would be tied in with the bike trail that's on Stone Road or is that still at the early stages?

20:28No, I'm glad you asked that because that is part of the reason that we're also looking at the feasibility of another crossing at, of another potential crossing on Stone Road as well for when perhaps one day city trails in that area are formalized.

20:45For now, I believe these are third party trails and they connect with a bit of a, and they connect with the, they connect under the river and I know that that path under the river is flooded at times.

21:00So our design would connect with the trails on Northside. Access to the South could be provided from either underneath the bridge or potentially the future crossing at Stone Road.

21:12Okay, okay, so that's what that crossing would be for then.

21:16Yes, potential future city trails. But for now, they're still third party trails.

21:23Okay, yeah, thank you. And I think just having a connected cycling system would be great. So, I like to see all the additional cycling trails incorporated in this.

21:41Yeah, Justin, you have a question or comment.

21:44Yeah, I have a couple questions.

21:47My first one is looking along Stone Road.

21:51So we have on to the west of Street A, you've got cycle tracks and pedestrians on both sides of the road. And then to the east.

22:02They're only on one side of the road. How do we see the cyclists or the pedestrians who are on the south side of the road and guessing getting to the north side where suddenly that multi-use path is?

22:17Yep. So we are anticipating a signalized intersection to be installed at Stone Road and Street A. This will allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross to the facility on the north side of the road.

22:30Okay. One other thing I'm wondering about.

22:36When we're looking along Victoria, even with removing the one direction of cycle track on that north section, it still looks very tight.

22:48Yes.

22:49And we're talking about, especially for, again, cyclists when we're talking about space to provide safety for cyclists where they're going from this, this really lovely situation where they've got lots of space and they're feeling comfortable and whoop, now we're right beside the cars.

23:04Yes.

23:06So consider an option where we have both directions of the cycle track somehow off of Victoria along that section. I know you're only showing, I believe, the southbound.

23:20We actually did think about detouring everyone through the alleyway. However, we wanted to make sure that people, that people would still potentially be able to easily access the ethnic supermarket plaza, the Tim Hortons and other businesses on that side of Victoria Road.

23:39And it was important for us to illustrate that this path is possible to encourage active transportation travel between the plaza and to GID.

23:51With regards to the level of discomfort here, I totally acknowledge that it's not excellent. We're able to mitigate it somewhat with some barriers between the multi-use path and the vehicle lanes, especially on the slope.

24:09But it's not quite the luxurious experience for sure that you would experience on Victoria south.

24:17We also did think about a multi-use path just going all the way down to the ethnic supermarket plaza, but we had some potential safety concerns.

24:27And this is talking about the east side of Victoria Road. So if you would imagine a multi-use path over there, or if you wouldn't imagine a multi-use path there, we had some concerns that downhill cyclists might require some extra space.

24:45And we really wanted to avoid, and we wanted to try to avoid conflicts with other users to the extent possible. And that is why we moved the uphill cyclists to the other side of the road.

24:58So yes, we went through a lot of iterations. And the one that we landed with is the one which minimizes the potential bridge impacts, property impacts, while still creating something that we could call the cycling spine network.

25:15I could also talk about what would happen if we had a really wide two-way cycle track and sidewalk on the east side of the bridge.

25:25This would require some significant refurbishment to the bridge to alter the cross-grade and the location of the crown.

25:34And we're not sure that it can be done because if we start moving the pavement around on the Victoria Road bridge in order to fix the drainage and to ensure that no one is driving directly over the crown, that's some significant dead load on the bridge that the original designers might not have foreseen.

25:52So that's a little bit long-winded. But I rest assured we thought about this really hard.

26:00Yeah, no, I appreciate the detailed response. Thank you.

26:03I've got a few questions.

26:12So you mentioned Nancy that there will be no construction related to the bridge on Stone Road.

26:20Is it the same? I guess you've kind of alluded to it just now, but there's no plans to widen the bridge on Victoria Road either.

26:28Nope, there are no plans to widen the bridge on Victoria or Stone.

26:33And coming down the laneway with the bike path on the west side, there's quite a great change between the park and the bridge.

26:42Yes.

26:43So there'll be a lot of filling going on in that area, would there?

26:47I think we would try to avoid such a thing. We have disgustous with parks and they are theoretically supportive of this idea.

26:55We would try to make sure that the trail when it goes through the park would harmonize with the existing trails. And if need be, we might adjust some of the trails in the Aramasa River Park in order to ensure that we didn't have, well,

27:11so that it was like kind of a unified experience rather than a bunch of ad hoc spaghetti trails.

27:17But no, we're not planning to build like a real, we're not planning to build an enormous earthwork dam, like an enormous earthwork ramp in the park right now.

27:26Okay. So I guess having set aside the bridges, I guess my biggest concern, I guess, and I think you've stated yourself the concern with the Arboretum.

27:42Yes.

27:43So I'm not so much concerned with the Arboretum, but really significant interest in trying to protect the integrity of the Arboretum and the significant woodlands that are related there.

27:56So I appreciate your comment about, you know, using concept three in the south section at the pinch points.

28:07So I guess the works will be occurring within, you know, the minimum setback from significant woodlands. And I just wondered if, for one, whether or not the alignment has been fixed for that piece of Victoria Road, or is there any flexibility in shifting the alignment further to the east to mitigate or minimize

28:30potential for impacts on the significant woodlands.

28:35Like I said before, our works are completely outside of the significant woodlands, and we have actually shifted the alignment of the road significantly to the east already.

28:47So it's not as far east as some people might like to imagine, for example, but you might notice in the slides that the existing, we're basically holding the west side of the existing road.

29:06So where the west side of the road is currently a shoulder bike lane, that is going to basically stay, but it's going to be a sidewalk instead. And almost all of the work is going to be pushed to the east.

29:21That includes the vehicle lanes where the center line actually already is pushed about, I think, seven or eight meters towards the GID lands.

29:31So we are within, we are as far east as we can be within the right of way that has been prescribed to us in the official plan.

29:43And in terms of stormwater management, I know that there's standards for this kind of thing, but and it's maybe a little early in the study, but in terms of dealing with runoff from the road and the grading around that significant woodland again, what are the plans at this point to handle stormwater runoff, that type of thing?

30:10Right. So the grading of this road would be, currently, we've got the idea that we will drain everything towards the vehicle right of way where it will be caught in the curving gutter, and then treat it appropriately there.

30:26We're not intending that runoff should go into the significant woodland.

30:30You're right, though, that we're very early on in the stormwater management policy. But by all means, I'm not, I wouldn't like to see runoff from the road end up in the arboretum.

30:41But yes, currently the drain is all towards the center of the road rather than towards the ditches on the side.

31:02That would be the only comments I've got right now. Other than, I think Laura was sort of giving out the importance of pedestrian crossings and I guess I would just sort of reinforce the importance of being serious consideration to pedestrian crossings on Stone Road west of the Irmaasa River.

31:20Because I could certainly been there many times myself and I could see it being a real concern and this is an opportunity to address pedestrian and cyclist safety there.

31:32So I think maybe we'll suggest that in our comments, recognizing that it's still under analysis. We would certainly encourage people to consider that.

31:43Of course.

31:46It was interesting. Just one last comment.

31:49We ride cycle up and down Watson and dealing with the traffic at Stone Road has been a problem.

31:57And as we've written, we've always suggested maybe this is a good place for a turning circle.

32:03A roundabout rather. And now there's lights there.

32:08And we thought that was a big step forward. So it's an emissions related thing, I guess, traffic flow priority now, I guess, to remove the stoplights and put in the roundabout.

32:25That be a proper way to read it?

32:30My understanding was actually that the lights at Watson and Stone were always intended to be temporary in nature.

32:38But the land uses at Watson's and Stone are very supportive of a roundabout. The traffic volume volumes are fairly equal on all four legs.

32:46It's rather nice and rural. And vehicles are that and it will in a way help vehicles slow.

32:54It'll help calm vehicles as they're approaching the intersection naturally while also reducing emissions.

33:00So I believe that a roundabout was always the ultimate plan, but at a certain point a stop gap was required.

33:07Has there been any thoughts to dealing with bike lanes through the turning circle?

33:13We currently as part of the transportation master plan, we've only got the bike lanes on Stone Road.

33:20We have an active transportation crossing on the west side of Stone Road. But at this current point, we don't have anything in the foreseeable horizon for the active transportation facilities on Stone to connect to.

33:38Just know as a cyclist trying to get through a roundabout. When cars are whipping around the circle can be a little unnerving.

33:48Are you asking just to be clear, are you asking for perhaps bike lanes on the all of the approaches or in any particular direction?

33:59Well, there would be traffic from Stone Road. So East, East on Stone Road, East and West on Stone Road, and North, South on Watson.

34:08I don't think there's a lot of cyclist traffic east of Watson on the extension of Stone Road like up.

34:16But there is a reasonable amount of traffic in that area. Certainly I've experienced it.

34:22So it was nice to have to stop lights because everybody knows the rules. But when you enter into a roundabout on a bike, it becomes a little unnerving.

34:30So it's just something that I'd ask the city to explore a little bit in terms of the final detailed sign.

34:37So, and this is for cyclists traveling on the road who are going to be possibly continuing on the road.

34:45You'd like to see a place for them to be a little bit separated from the vehicles.

34:52Yeah, yeah. There's a fair bit of traffic. Not so, to be honest, my experience anyway is there's not a lot of traffic on Stone Road.

35:02But Watson is a major go-through for people heading out into the country.

35:08So I don't know if you've got any traffic stays that have documented that, but that's been my experience anyway.

35:16Great. I guess the only other thing I would ask, and this came up in previous presentations, previous meetings, is that we have an opportunity to review the final study with the impact assessment and

35:33medicated measures that are being proposed?

35:35100% yes. This will be published when the study is finished with the 30-day review period.

35:45Okay. Will it be an opportunity for it to come to the committee though?

35:49Is there anything in particular that you'd probably like to review at that time?

35:56I would have to talk to my manager about what's typical for that, but certainly we could potentially bring it back.

36:07Yeah, I guess it's, you know, we don't really have any detailed information on the medicated measures.

36:14And so we need to be sure with significant woodlands, the cool water streams that are being crossed, you know, that kind of thing is really corridor mandate.

36:24So I think the concept, you know, I think everybody's generally on board with the concept, but it's the details that, you know,

36:31Yes, understood.

36:33Those things.

36:35Yes, I think there would be an opportunity to come back. I don't know if it's typical and I'll have to check with my manager, but I'm open to the idea of coming back once the impact assessment has finished.

36:48Yeah, appreciate that.

36:50Thank you.

36:52Any other comments or questions at this point?

36:57Seeing none.

37:00Okay, let's workshop the motion.

37:02I'm a bit rusty.

37:04We didn't have that one to be in the film.

37:06Well, we've done a great job.

37:10So we do have a motion to receive the presentation.

37:16And then also, I drafted that the following comments from the planning environment and water advisory committee be provided to staff for consideration so trying to include everything that folks have said.

37:31But we can we can word Smith be the language so in support of the trail crossing out the Victorian road.

37:39Make it clear. Yeah, so I think the wording should be on Victoria road south.

37:46I think Laura, this is something you. Yeah, yeah, we support the as your crossing out the patients and so the river.

37:54Is it so that are possible.

38:00And then consider how to incorporate a design that connects the bike to us to the bridge crossing at stone road.

38:13Sounds like that's already being done, but maybe it's more along the lines of supporting that pedestrian crossing such by crossing at that.

38:21And I guess it would be a future because I think as Nancy pointed out the trails there are private at this point.

38:28Right.

38:29I mean, they are third party trails, but there's no reason why we can't ensure that a connection can be built or at least there's not like some sort of awkward curb separating the multi use path from these other trails.

38:44Okay.

38:46So maybe ensuring a design that connects the bike trails and yeah, the existing bridge.

39:11Or yeah, it's going to clarify which is the distinct what is.

39:16It's not so much connecting it to the bridge crossing but really connecting the trails to stone road.

39:22Right.

39:23The existing bike trails to the proposed road bike trails.

39:31Post.

39:33Right cycle path, maybe.

39:36I have the trails of.

39:47To the proposed cycling lanes on.

39:51Stop.

39:52Good.

40:01The back door.

40:08Connection.

40:09I think that was just and I don't know if I captured that correctly just.

40:15Can you see that Justin.

40:16Yes, I can.

40:17I think you're, you're close.

40:20It's yeah.

40:22Finding a way to, I'm trying to think of a good wording, but like create as a seamless transition.

40:31Between, you know, the two.

40:34Road types.

40:37East and west of street a.

40:41I'm not, I'm kind of struggling on a way to word that.

40:51Like a side would be like complete streets design.

40:55Further south and the more reduced.

41:00You come down the field.

41:05That's your good.

41:07If we use directions, so from the south to the north and from the south.

41:12Yeah.

41:15From the north.

41:18Yeah, just outside of stone road.

41:22So that's going on.

41:28So we're talking.

41:29We're talking to you guys are talking about Victoria.

41:35Oh, sir.

41:36I think we're talking about stone road.

41:41Right.

41:42So Victorians stone and then he's where it goes.

41:45As the word goes to the four line down to the two.

41:48Yeah.

41:49And where, yeah, what at street a.

41:53To the slide.

41:55We've got.

41:56To the south.

42:13To the other side.

42:15Yeah, I think consider it.

42:17Transition.

42:22From the north to the south.

42:42Of stone road.

42:46And you can keep the north to the south for pedestrian cycle crossing.

42:50At stone road and street a.

42:52And then just get rid of the Victoria road north.

42:55Art.

42:58So just here.

43:00Where road typologies.

43:02Change.

43:03I don't know.

43:09Okay.

43:21How's that?

43:23What can you Nancy types?

43:37Is that.

43:38Is that.

43:39Considering a transition to the, from the north to the south at stone road and street a.

43:46For pedestrian and cyclist crossing where road typologies.

43:49I get the impression.

43:51You want us to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists are able to cross.

43:56When the facilities transition.

43:58You want it to be seamless and you don't want anyone stranded on a sidewalk to

44:02nowhere.

44:03Okay.

44:04Nancy.

44:06You got it.

44:07Okay.

44:09Yeah.

44:11I think Nancy's sort of.

44:15I'll give you that.

44:22That's what actually.

44:29You can still provide the feedback just to,

44:32for us to emphasize that in the design.

44:37Okay.

44:38Okay. All right. So laser berita maybe. Yeah, related to from the road. Yeah. So

44:53some good woodlands and that stormwater management and grading is not, you can

44:59get rid of ensuring that. We were talking about safe finish crossing across a

45:23number of locations and wasn't sure if you wanted to specify where. I always

45:32would. The first bullet speaks to it to. Yeah.

45:38Not sure we need that one. Was there anybody want to add additional crossing

45:43people say I'm way that that second from last bullets.

45:47Let's do add any additional pedestrian crossings to have a first bullet. Like

45:52we're talking about that one on Victoria roads, Southern River. We want to

45:57indicate. I think you had mentioned that we support one at Stone Road, like at

46:05the bike trail location. Right. Yeah. Just to be clear about that. Just. Yeah. So

46:12the first bullet and here. Yeah. It's really pedestrian crossing. They were

46:18talking about this trail crossing. Yeah.

46:37I'm not that sure. So we'd be at the.

46:42See what's the bridge. That's pretty much the bridge on so much. Yeah, which I

46:48think. I guess the other location I'm wondering about would be somewhere at

47:02the arboretum. I don't know if that's something Nancy that has been in

47:07consideration. I know there's some other future streets that will have

47:11crossings. Yes. So there's going to be about I think four or five interest four

47:19or five signalized intersections fronting on the Guelph Innovation District on

47:25Victoria Road. So there will be a lot of there will be a lot of opportunities for

47:31after transportation crossings in that area. I think the main entrance to the

47:38arboretum is currently on College Avenue and that one is already signalized. So

47:42for sure we'll be having a protected intersection design there as well.

47:47I suspect it as much. And the one last point would be what I asked Nancy at the

47:53end, which would be prior to finalization of our most important

48:01staff and crew to provide committee and opportunity to the settlement impacts

48:11and identification of legal issues. The second last bullet point, I think that

48:41one was relating to the roundabouts cyclists traffic in and out of the

48:45nozzle. So there'd be an interest parentheses. Yeah, just so that it's a reminder.

48:53Very concerned.

48:58Everybody with all that? Any more words to the thing required? Can I get a motion

49:08to move acceptance of the recommendation? We'll do we'll do both. We'll do the

49:14receipt and your comments all together. So just one for a month second. Okay.

49:21You don't want to take the lead on that?

49:24Or seconder?

49:28We're there. Gavin, thank you. Okay.

49:37Only as cold notes.

49:40Democracy.

49:42All in favor? Okay, thanks. Right. Thank you everyone. And thank you, Nancy, for

49:51all your commentary and great presentation. With luck, I'll be back in. I don't

49:58want to promise any dates, but I believe probably late fall would be a good time

50:01for me to come back if I do. At which point I will regale you with a similarly

50:08worthy presentation. We look forward to it. Thank you. Okay, the next item on our

50:15agenda is an announcement from Heather Connell, Manager of Technical Services on

50:20the long term approach for the organic waste processing facility. Heather, you

50:25have some news? I do. Thank you for having me. So this Friday, staff will be releasing

50:32an information item on the long term plan for the city's organic waste processing

50:37facility. Just so some background information, the city owns the facility but uses Convertus,

50:44which is a third party contract to operator facility. And the facility processes

50:49approximately 30,000 tons of organic waste each year. So 10,000 comes from the city of

50:56Guelph's curbside organic program. And the other 20,000 comes from a contract with the

51:02region of Waterloo from their organic curbside program. So in 2028, both the Waterloo

51:08contract as well as the Convertus operating contract will conclude. And since that time,

51:16we commissioned this facility back in 2011. And since that time, there have been more

51:22organic waste processing facilities available in the province. And as a result, the processing

51:28fees have become more cost competitive. So these are some of the challenges that we'll be seeking

51:34as we kind of determine our long term options. So the report outlines the process staff will

51:40take to study and recommend alternatives for either the future operation of the facility

51:46and the treatment of Guelph's organic waste. So as a result of that, we will be going out for

51:53under a procurement bylaws called a request for expression of interest, where we release that

51:59to the public to determine market interest and proposed options that some different vendors

52:04would be interested in submitting. And any approval of future arrangements would be contingent

52:10on council approval in early 2027. So those options can include anything from

52:18kind of similar operation to now to technological upgrades, such as anaerobic digestion,

52:24and either repurposing the facility as an organic waste transfer station if we decide to ship to a

52:30third party processor, or any other type of kind of waste initiatives or other circular economy

52:36opportunities. So it's kind of a very high level report that's going to council that's kind of,

52:42you know, just letting them know that we are going out for this request for information.

52:48Okay. Any, thank you for that Heather. Any questions for Heather? Just curious, I guess

52:56part of your analysis will be sort of a building a business case as to whether or not

53:00so the cost of transporting the carbon footprint of transporting versus

53:07an on-site energy from organic facility and the cost of construction and all that,

53:12they will be looking to minimize the footprint, I guess, and maximize the benefits of the organic waste.

53:18Yeah, absolutely. Like all of those impacts will be taken into account from kind of the fiscal to

53:23the environmental impact, as well as potential like if you look at social maybe like jobs.

53:29So those will all be part of the evaluation criteria.

53:35Has there been any consideration of blending like biosolids from the wastewater treatment plant with

53:42organics in some sort of centralized digestion facility? You mentioned antirip digestion, but

53:48like since there's other sources of organics that the city's producing already, is that something

53:53that's on the table? Yeah, I see we on the call might have more information than I do, but so

53:59I'm not maybe, or even maybe Brian can speak to the biosolids from wastewater.

54:09I'm not going to be the expert at this, not at all. Yeah, we can maybe take that question back.

54:15Perhaps Wayne's got to believe, pardon me, sorry, I believe this has been reviewed in the past. One

54:20of the key things as far as wastewater is really getting the moisture out so we can do work with

54:25it as we're adding more streams in it becomes a little more uncertain and again more energy

54:30than to remove the moisture associated with that waste. So I think it would be like a dedicated

54:37digester to solid waste streams again if that were pursued just again in maintaining the biology

54:43of the wastewater treatment plant. Thank you. Sorry to put you on this spot, I just didn't have

54:50the information, thank you. Glad I could help.

54:58I think there are cities around us who are tackling these same issues in different ways

55:06and I just had an opportunity to visit Brantford and their facility where we have, I think it's

55:12quite a unique case because they have their solid waste management, their wastewater treatment,

55:17all being tackled in quite a unified sort of a way. So I'm not sure how familiar we are with

55:25what's going on but that seemed to be quite a unique case where they are using cogeneration and

55:31wastes from one capturing gas and natural gas and a couple of other things and methane and using

55:37them in the digester. So are we looking at what's going on and how different municipalities are

55:44dealing with similar kind of issues of course at different capacities? Yeah, we do like municipal

55:51comparator research as well and we actually have the city of Brantford, there's some folks coming to

55:57tour our site on Monday, next Monday, so that will give me an opportunity to hear more about what

56:03they're doing as well. And so I mean we do currently capture the digester gas at wastewater

56:11and do that. It's a Laura's question about kind of that cross and kind of spiking the

56:16digesters. You can kind of juice it up if you have the organics from organic waste,

56:24but there are details in some of that to get, as Wayne kind of suggested,

56:31like the right biology metals, things like that, so metals that's made in spirit.

56:35And like what's our capacity? Brant, if you're putting money into your digesters there,

56:40it makes sense to like send everything to some kind of digester. I don't know what's happening.

56:48All right, thanks for that. Thank you Heather. In terms of any other announcements, I guess the

56:55only announcement I have is to say that I'm going to be away at the next meeting.

57:01Well, you're available on July 13th. If there's nothing else. Just to clarify, do we have a meeting

57:10in August or is that one canceled? I believe there is. Yeah, I mean typically with the new

57:15framework that was implemented, August is in alignment with council meetings and they break

57:20for something. So yeah, so expect a meeting cancellation or August coming your way. Yeah,

57:30I don't know if planning has any updates or usually Lucas has something. But I'm pretty gorgeous.

57:38Surprisingly nothing for me. I'm the doing doing well, doing well, all fingers and toes accounted for

57:56Hi, so just a quick one. I should have mentioned it a little bit. Just to come back to the groups we

58:02did. We were at committee on June 2nd, I guess this last week Tuesday on the energy equity

58:11action plan. So I came to you, came to the group a few months ago about some of them. So

58:18just wanted to thank you again for the input. It was shared with committee at the time. We're

58:24going to be going back to council at the end of the month. But council was from committee, I guess,

58:29was very pleased with it. The input that was provided by the committee towards the action plan.

58:36So it goes up. And I guess another update too is Nancy was sharing on the stone road, Victoria

58:44Road's EA. So at stone and Watson, we have noticed construction activity that's going on there. So

58:53we did have our groundbreaking event for the Glow Transit Fleet Services facility. Just saw

58:59the salt waste facility there. So that action is going on there too. And looking to have that say,

59:07you know, right the next three years or so. Sorry, the next three years, three years. Maybe it's a

59:14fairly big endeavor. But happy to see it kind of. It will centralize a lot of the services.

59:22Yeah, so it's going to be the second. Well, transit depot, where we'll be storing and

59:28and in my opinion, it's the first fully electric charging facility for transit electrification.

59:37And then our fleet services, which currently reside in 45 municipal, this is kind of the

59:44step to kind of centralize that work and give them the equipment in space needed to kind of

59:50keep up with new vehicles, larger chassis, salt most things. So it'll be good in terms of big

59:57step forward. What's that? A big step forward. Yeah, it is a critical back of house infrastructure.

1:00:04So the fancy public ones, but I mean, these are the ones that are really good for keeping

1:00:10ambulances and fire trucks on the roads. Great thinking about. There's nothing else.

1:00:18Then a motion to adjourn. Who would like to move that?

1:00:25Raj, seconder? I'll second it. All in favor. Sorry, Shannon.

1:00:35Very. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the rest of the summer, I guess. I'll see you in

1:00:40September. It's a big place. Just first part, it's just thanks everyone. And then thanks.