Sunday, March 27, 2011

Letter to Katherine Hobbs on $$$$ from 125 Hickory Street

March 27, 2011

Dear Councillor Hobbs,

Re: CNHA Executive Decision relating to 125 Hickory Street Site Plan Approval Process

I am pleased to inform you that the elected officers of the CHNA Executive Committee have decided to endorse the recommendation of CHNA Planning and Development Committee and Traffic Committee representatives to put the $30,000 for traffic ameliorations towards a traffic study of our area. We understand that you favour using this money to combine and fund existing traffic study requests for our area and facilitate a larger study of the neighbourhood. We will be putting the CHNA executive recommendation to a vote at our next membership meeting.

If the membership agrees with our recommendation, we would like the City to commit to implementing the recommendations of any traffic study in a reasonable time period.

In addition, we would like to ensure that any consultants hired to implement this study were not previously hired by developers to do traffic impact studies in this area. We would also like to have a voice in the choice of the consultant, and preference given to consultants who specialize in promoting green forms of transportation.

As well, the CHNA would like to make it clear that we intend to pursue traffic amelioration measures such as the no entry during rush hours signs for residents nearest the developments.

You have stated that “my office and the city will seek further contributions from new developments for this traffic study estimated to cost between $100,000 and $150,000. Given the pace of development in the area it is possible that this could be secured in the near future.”

Would you be able to tell us if your office and the City are seeking contributions from new developments such as 855 Carling and 100 Champagne or are you hoping to get the $100,000 to $150, 000 from additional developments?

As you know, it would take some time to obtain the necessary $100,000 to $150,000 dollars required to do a traffic study and even longer to complete the study. We are probably looking at a minimum of two years. Given the amount of development in our neighbourhood, we strongly believe the City should be working with the association on some immediate traffic amelioration measures.

In closing, we were very happy and surprised to hear that developer Mastercraft Starwood has secured a grocery store at 125 Hickory Street. We knew that the developer was trying to get a grocery store to occupy space on the first floor, but this was not a certainty. Would you be able to tell us what store will be occupying this space? The grocery store is great news and we look forward to hearing more about it.

Yours truly,

Katherine Steinhoff

VP, Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association

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