An idea to build a full north-south Parkway can't simply be nixed from either the city's transportation plan or from the new official plan, says a new city staff report — the provincial government has said council doesn't have the authority.

Meanwhile it could be eight years before motorists see any north-south traffic improvements if council wants to go with alternatives to The Parkway extension, the report states.

Council had asked city staff in January to write a report about whether it can update the city's transportation plan without a full Parkway extension.

The idea came from Coun. Kemi Akapo and council voted to support it.

"I'm looking for alternatives," Akapo said. "The Parkway has been on the books far too long — and it's not progressing."

For about 70 years, a ribbon of green space has been set aside to extend The Parkway from north to south. But the street was never built and the land has been used as a trail for years.

In 2014, a previous city council decided it was time to finally build the extension. The idea was to cut down traffic congestion.

But 88 citizen appeals were filed to Queen's Park. All of them were asking that the city be ordered to do this more-detailed environmental assessment (EA).

In 2016 the provincial government ordered the city to do a more-detailed EA if it wants to build even a portion of The Parkway.

But the new city staff report states that the EA order from the province goes further: if the city wants to go with a series of alternative road improvements instead of extending The Parkway, it must do an EA of those alternatives first.

That EA must consider whether The Parkway would be more effective, the report states — meaning the full Parkway EA must be done.

"Eliminating certain alternatives from consideration prior to starting the individual EA study is known as 'focusing,' and can (result) in significant objections from stakeholders," the report states.

The report also states the city can't remove The Parkway from the new official plan, which is under development and is expected to be adopted by the end of 2019.

"Eliminating the Parkway corridor from the new Official Plan with no assessment and no alternatives could be subject to appeal through the Planning Act and could impact the timeline for the adoption of the entire new Official Plan," states the report.

Meanwhile it could take eight years for the city to implement any other alternative measures to ease traffic.

City staff estimates that a series of "background studies" council plans to do will take nearly a year-and-a-half to complete.

Those studies are meant to assess whether improved public transit, upgraded signalization and more cycling trails would ease traffic just as effectively as a new Parkway, for example.

After those studies are done, it will take another year-and-a-half to update the city's transportation plan and then three to five years to do the full EA of The Parkway, the report says, for a total of eight years.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Councillors will discuss the matter Monday evening at city hall at 6 p.m.

joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com