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Local business owners meet with consultancy firm to discuss downtown transit terminal

September 25, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Baker

A collection of downtown business owners are continuing to fight back against the Town’s plans to construct a new bus terminal on Broadway. 

Following years of debate spread across two different iterations of Orangeville Council, a final decision was made back in April that would see space on either side of Broadway, between First St. and John St., serve as the home for the municipality’s proposed transit transfer station. The move would eliminate 11 parking spaces in the downtown core, and has been opposed by the Orangeville Business Improvement Area (BIA), as well as several business and property owners in the area. 

Leading the charge against the move has been Terrance Carter, Managing Partner of Carters law firm. While his three presentations to Council, where he pointed out several potential health and safety concerns, have largely fallen on deaf ears, he has now turned his attentions to the consulting firm hired by the Town to conduct a safety study of the site. 

Mr. Carter was one of approximately 25 individuals to meet with representatives from IBI Group on Monday (Sept. 21). While he was disappointed not to be able to meet with the consultants on a one-to-one basis to express his thoughts on the plan, he spoke openly about many of his concerns. He followed up on the meeting by submitting a letter to Matt Colwill, Associate Director – Practice Lead, Transportation Engineering with IBI Group.

In the letter he outlined four notable issues with the plan, largely focusing on the potential for increased jaywalking, impact on the ability of emergency vehicles to navigate Broadway, the detrimental health impacts of increased bus fumes in the area, and the downside of removing “much-needed” parking spots in the downtown core. 

“These are critical safety and health issues that we believe need to be seriously considered in relation to the proposed location of the Transit Transfer Station on Broadway, all of which clearly indicate that, from a public safety and health perspective, the Broadway location is a very poor choice,” Mr. Carter stated. 

Referencing jaywalking, Mr. Carter believes, with buses set to be located on both sides of Broadway, riders looking to transfer from one bus to another will “invariably become involved” in illegally crossing the road in the middle of the block to get to their next bus quickly, as opposed to crossing at either the First. St. or John St. intersection. 

Mr. Carter’s personal office faces onto Broadway, and he says jaywalking is already a regular occurrence along that stretch of roadway. Adding a bus terminal at the site will only serve to exacerbate the issue, he believes. 

Doug Jones, the Town’s General Manager of Infrastructure Services refuted that suggestion at a Council meeting in May, stating that no bus will depart the transfer point until all riders have disembarked from the last arriving bus and had the opportunity to safely cross the road at one of the two official crossings.

“We are going to do our best to communicate with people there is no need to run across the street, jaywalk and endanger themselves, because the bus isn’t going to leave until they’ve had the opportunity to board,” Mr. Jones said. 

In relation to emergency service vehicles, Mr. Carter contests that the portion of Broadway between First. St. and John St. is already a heavily congested zone, with vehicles already having trouble getting out of the way of police cruisers, ambulances and fire engines responding to a call. 

In another letter submitted to IBI Group, Orangeville BIA General Manager Alison Scheel argued there are as many as nine health and safety concerns regarding the proposed location of the downtown transit transfer station. While sharing Mr. Carter’s concern over jaywalking, parking, traffic congestion and the deterioration of air quality in the area, Ms. Scheel brought forward several other points of congestion.

One of her chief concerns surrounded accessibility to businesses in the area for people with disabilities and small children. 

“Very limited public parking in this area, combined with a lack of on-street parking and an increase in sidewalk congestion will impede accessibility for the elderly, persons with disabilities and families with small children requiring access to the businesses/services, and to curb-side pick-up services in the immediate vicinity, including the post office, Service Canada office, a church, a bank, a health food store, a soup kitchen, a memorial monument show room, a MPP office, two health clinics, a diagnostic imaging centre, as well as a karate studio, a retail and tattoo parlour, a pizzeria, an employment agency, a law firm, a paralegal office, a loan company, a traffic consulting business, and a yoga studio,” Ms. Scheel said. 

She added, “Many of these vulnerable individuals require being dropped off and picked up from these businesses and services. The parking spaces to be taken up by the proposed terminal would severely limit the ability of these vulnerable individuals, and their families, to access goods and services from these businesses.”

She believed many people would resort to parking illegally in the bus zones, leading to increased congestion in the area. Ms. Scheel also pointed out several concerns she had relating to lighting and security in the area, and the lack of public washrooms. 

In August 2019, Orangeville Mayor Sandy Brown and Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones made a presentation in town, announcing a $2.1 million investment to Orangeville’s transit system. The project was to be funded equally by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, at around $700,000 a piece. It was announced back then that the money would be used to purchase two new buses, a glass shelter, benches and a lay-by bus lane to serve as the municipality’s new transit hub. 

In an email previously sent to a colleague of Mr. Carter’s, Mr. Colwill of IBI Group wanted to clarify the scope and context of the work his firm will be providing in the safety study. 

“IBI Group was retained to undertake a road safety audit of the proposed site and the transit terminal. We are tasked with identifying likely risks to road users and possible treatments to reduce those risks,” Mr. Colwill wrote. “However, it is not within the scope of our study to comment on the feasibility of the proposed site, nor can we recommend alternative sites. Also, our study is limited to road user safety concerns, for example, conflicts and crash risk to drivers, transit riders, pedestrians and cyclists.”

Mr. Carter believes a more ideal location for the bus terminal would be the Westdale Mall site at 286 Broadway, which currently houses businesses such as The Beer Store, Bowling on Broadway and FreshCo, although Mr. Jones has stated the owners of the site would not entertain the idea when approached by the Town. Ms. Scheel believes the best spot for the transit hub is the previously proposed location on Centre Street, in front of the Edelbrock Centre. Much work was carried out on that particular proposal from 2017 to 2019, which went as far as Town staff developing a site plan that would have seen a lay-by lane introduced at the site. Eventually, the site on Centre Street was scrapped due to its close proximity to the community garden, where volunteers grow fruits and vegetables for themselves, local residents in need and the Orangeville Food Bank. 

With IBI Group still working on putting together its safety study, Mr. Carter is calling on the firm to set up individual meetings with business owners in the area, so as to “hear the views of people who know firsthand the threat to public safety and health that would occur from locating the transit transfer station on Broadway”. He also asked that they consider interviewing emergency vehicle drivers, Orangeville Transit bus drivers, and local residents who walk along Broadway on a regular basis. 

“Anything less than this level of due diligence will call into question the completeness of your study, as well as whether it will meet the acceptable standards expected of a safety study on the transfer station’s location, both of which will impact the safety and health of the public for years to come,” Mr. Carter stated. 

IBI Group indicated to those in attendance on Monday that it expects to complete its study by mid-October. That will give Orangeville Council the ability to potentially reconsider its decision, something that is unlikely at this point, before the end of the year. 

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