BobJonkman: BobJonkman moved page Meet The Candidates - Waterloo to Meet The Candidates 2018 - Waterloo: Better description

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BobJonkman moved page Meet The Candidates - Waterloo to Meet The Candidates 2018 - Waterloo: Better description

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== Waterloo Meet The Candidates ==
; Date: Sunday, 11 October 2018, 4:00pm to 6:00pm
; Location: First United Church, 16 William Street, Waterloo, ON

=== Affordable Housing ===

* What will it take?
* We're building expensive buildings
* People losing housing uptown
* City has not made moves to make Affordable Housing
* But there's lots of affordable housing
** but the rental bylaws prevent people from renting their property
** Bylaw is not about safety; eg. no fire inspections required
* Lack of Affordable Housing is more than just bylaw; the problem also exists in jurisdictions without the rental bylaw
* Gentrification -- No affordable housing is built into new development
* But we can't have ghetto areas

* How does the Region work with Cities?
** Can apply inclusionary zoning laws
* LRT builds up areas, but not affordable housing

* "Single biggest issue"
** affordable housing is related to homelessness, people feeling safe in their community

* Q: How does the rental bylaw help?
** A: It's a trade-off -- safety?
** People were dying in unsafe housing

* Cambridge has ideas, eg. taxes on vacant land deferred
** Developers can afford to build Affordable Housing
** municipality provides rental supplements

* Other groups help, eg. Working Centre
* Region can lead the charge

=== Traffic ===

* Roundabouts - Is there any consultation between the Region and the Cities?
** Concerned about areas near schools
** Safety for pedestrians
* There was a workshop on roundabouts
** Bicycles are vehicles too
* No-one has ever been killed in a roundabout, they're the safest thing
* St. Mary's accident with a child exiting a school bus
** Crossing guards have been added to that roundabout

* Public consultation is important
** Planners miss things important to residents

* Jurisdiction: Mostly on Regional roads, sometimes on Municipal roads
* Crossing guards are paid for by the Region
** A new roundabout already has crossing guards

* Traffic calming? Roundabouts do slow traffic some

* Awareness of pedestrians in roundabouts?
** Need 4-way lighted signals at all four entrances/exits to the roundabout (all go on at the same time)
** Narrow bumpy streets are safe (from a trip to Bolivia)

* People don't like traffic calming
** Speed bumps are too close to each other, or only at the ends of the street
** Sometimes people become more accepting of traffic calming measures after they've been installed

=== Light Rail Transit ===

* When is it going to be operational?
** Every day at Charles Street there's construction
** There was too much construction (during LRT installation)

* How much money has been spent on repairs already?
** Constantly tearing up concrete and putting it back
** Large scale projects can take a lot of repairs

* Region has done a reasonably good job in budget

* The LRT lateness is due to Bombardier

* Public/Private Partnership: Poor use of resources
** Paid too much for contractors doing work

* When extending the LRT to Cambridge don't repeat the same mistakes
** Need better communication with property owners
** Perhaps there should be a regional tax break for affected businesses

* Lots of infrastructure changes (water, sewer, hydro) paid for by Provincial and Federal contributions; would not have happened without the LRT

* Needs to be coordination between installing infrastructure and rails (avoid 2x road tearup)

* Transit hasn't worked in the past, why should this be different?
** That was collusion between government and Standard Oil and General Motors to replace transit with personal vehicles

* Getting cars off the road?

* What will the LRT fare be? Less than the cost of driving?
** Not getting people out of cars if fare is higher

* Low/No fare for economically disadvantaged
** No fares at all (done in other jurisdictions)

* Need reasons for using cars less, eg. environmental reasons
** Needs a balance of these reasons
** Encourage bike lanes -- safety!
** for well-being, exercise

=== Environmental sustainability ===

* How does environmental sustainability relate to Region?
** Preservation of Green Belt; province to extend Green Belt area to Waterloo Region

* Waterloo Region standards already higher than other jurisdictions
** Fear that our standards will be lowered
** Hope that other standards will be raised to our levels!

* Drinking water (mostly from) ground water

* What mechanisms exist to promote environmental sustainability?
** Constructive voice with the Province
** but there is concern over the current provincial government
* Need to have provincial government hear our concerns
** New MPPs need to hear us

* Salt in groundwater? What can the Region do?
** People are throwing salt around
** Region did an audit of business' salt usage
** Salt runoff goes to pumping station at Williams and Regina
** Region asked to have contractors minimize salt usage
** but insufficient salt brings danger of people slipping and falling, and lawsuits
** There are "Smart Salt" courses for contractors, but not mandatory
** Not even Region staff follows Smart Salt guidelines
** Snowplow operators need (Smart Salt courses?)
** Needed at City level too
** Need training across the board

* Countryside Line?
** Wilmot line? Slows down traffic
** Helps preserve countryside
** It is challenging to get out of subdivision
** Was it Wilmot's decision (to build outside the countryside line?)

* The Countryside Line has been in the Regional Official Plan since about 2009
** The Cities decide what goes into areas established by the Region
** Erbsville Road, Ira Needles, Wilmot Line, Benjamin Road, Grand River all part of the Countryside Line
** Regional Council unanimously supported the Countryside Line
** "The fight is done"
** Great for biking, &c.

* The LRT helps build up, not out

* People don't want urban sprawl, but don't want high-rises in their neighbourhood either
* Province sets urban densities in the "Places To Grow Act"

* What we have to do
** Not a lot of land left
** Need smart growth
** We have urban design guidelines
** What do people want?
** What do we have, what do we need?
** eg. we now have a surplus of student housing

* Developments are proposed for one bedroom units, but we need room for families
* Stand behind developers so we can meet our goals

* Green space in cities
** "Green To Grey" (https://greytogreenconference.org/)
** Green space for physical and mental health

* Best interests of community
** Better job of communication with residents

* Cities have a "density bonus"
** Affordable housing can be built by flexible building codes

* Vertical communities
** How to get people to connect with each other? Community

* Participatory budgeting
** Folks get together to decide how to spend money
** Funding challenges at Region

=== Cycling ===
* Behind Conestoga mall there are green paint lanes: How to use them?
* How to coordinate cycling infrastructure
** Bike lanes in Waterloo look like parking strips in Kitchener
* Need better communication!
* Signage at intersection refer to websites: cyclists can't do that
** If instructions are needed it's an indication that the intersection isn't designed correctly
* Cycling lanes abruptly end
* Active Transportation plan calls for 600km of cycling and pedestrian routes
* Active Transportation is in the Regional capital budget

* Older areas of the city has narrow streets
** Can't take away roads (for bike infrastructure)

* Need a plan on how to cross the City (Region) on a bike
** Map showing routes from north Waterloo to south Kitchener, east/west corridors

=== Grand River Transit ===

* Need major improvements for the GRT
** The app is poor, website doesn't work on small devices
** Region approved Transportation Master Plan three months ago
** Includes server and website platform upgrades
* Regional transit moved from Hub-and-Spoke to a Grid pattern
** eg. iXpress routes connecting to LRT backbone

* New On-Demand bus service, like Uber
* Plan to link ION to all-day GO trains
* Driver-less buses? (autonomous vehicles)
* Want one app for GO, VIA, Uber, taxis

* Municipal Mayors have a role on Regional Council too

Notes taken by Bob Jonkman

[[Category:Social Development Centre]]

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