Meet The Candidates 2018 - Waterloo

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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


  • 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

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