Ontario limits Transit EAs to six months!

[waterloowarrior]

Ontario cuts transit red tape
TheStar.com

Environmental reviews of proposed projects limited to six months
February 08, 2008
Kerry Gillespie
Tess Kalinowski
Staff Reporters

People who don't want new streetcars or subways running through their neighbourhoods will no longer be able to use prolonged environmental assessments to delay them.

Because the process was often used as a stalling tactic by not-in-my-backyard opponents, Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet has approved a six-month time limit for environmental assessments on transit projects.

The new regulation, approved on Wednesday, is expected to become law by June. It will apply to all projects receiving provincial funding, sources told the Toronto Star.

"I think it's going to make a real difference in terms of our ability to get public transit up," McGuinty said yesterday.

Under existing rules, environmental assessments on transit projects take, on average, two years. The TTC's Spadina subway extension assessment took three years and it was just an update of a previous assessment. Waterloo started a rapid transit assessment in 2004 that isn't expected to be completed until this fall.

The dedicated lane for Toronto's St. Clair streetcar, for example, was held up for months at the assessment stage with fights over curb heights, which had nothing to do with the environment. In the end it took two years to get through the assessment.

Under existing rules, if someone objects to a streetcar, the transit authority has to come back with a study showing the implications of a bus, train, or even a hot-air balloon servicing the corridor instead.

"If someone wanted to talk about a new idea using cable cars or catapults you would have to evaluate them," TTC chair Adam Giambrone said.

This new regulation ends those fights by limiting the scope of discussion to environmental concerns about the approved project and, for the first time, limiting public consultation to 85 days. Right now, it can go on forever.

It also limits the government's ability to delay. Once the assessment is complete, the environment minister has to decide within 35 days whether or not the project can go forward.

The six-month limit on environmental assessments applies just to transit projects, but sources said the government will consider whether a similar approach could shorten the process for projects such as highways and landfills.

It began with transit projects to ensure the province's ambitious $11.5 billion transit plan, Move Ontario 2020 – designed to get people out of cars and on to transit – doesn't get held up in red tape.

As one provincial official put it: "An environmental assessment process being used to hold up projects that are good for the environment is kind of ironic."

As part of Move Ontario, Toronto-area transportation planners face the challenge of building 52 transit projects approved by the province. Those include extensions of the Spadina and Yonge subway lines, more GO service, enhanced regional bus service and Toronto's ambitious Transit City light rail plan.

Getting those shovels in the ground would help the Toronto area catch up with cities that have spent the past two decades investing in public transit, says Rob MacIsaac, chair of regional transportation planning agency Metrolinx.

"When people look at what a place like Madrid has accomplished in 10 years, well the (environmental assessment) process is one of the things that slows us down," he said.

Madrid, which requires significantly less public consultation for transit, has built about 150 kilometres of subway in the past 12 years at a lower cost per kilometre than Toronto's Sheppard line.

It isn't about taking away people's right to object to a project, MacIsaac said.

"There are lots of public processes that allow people to have their say and make sure their concerns are heard. When a city does its official plan, when a city does its master transportation plan, those are the times that people need to get involved. There are plenty of ways in which they can do that. At some point we have to say, `Decisions have to be taken and projects have to move forward.'"

Toronto's $6 billion Transit City plan, which would put streetcar lines on seven major routes stretching into the suburbs, can't afford the delays encountered by the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way, said the TTC's Giambrone, who hopes to have three light rail lines under construction by 2010.

The new regulations are "critical to advancing Transit City and getting the improvements that the people of Toronto expect and need," he said.

The Eglinton subway is a classic example of an opportunity curtailed by the environmental assessment process, he said. The Conservative Mike Harris government wouldn't have been able to kill the Eglinton subway if it had been further along in its development, Giambrone said.

Many believe that a subway would have made more sense than the Sheppard line that was eventually built instead.

The new regulation will be posted for comments before it becomes law. While there will be some who say this stifles public input, the government is expecting the feedback to be largely positive.

"Most people will realize what this is about and they'll be happy about it," a provincial official said.

- With files from Rob Ferguson

Faster, more focused reviews

Environmental assessments for new transit projects will be faster and more focused under rules approved this week and expected to be law by June. Changes include:

An assessment must be complete in six months. Now there is no limit; a transit project review takes, on average, two years.

Public consultation is limited to 85 days. There is now no limit.

The minister of the environment has 35 days to review and rule on a project. There is no concrete time frame at present.

The scope is limited to environmental concerns. Right now, everything that was argued over during the municipal planning process, including how wide a dedicated bus lane should be or whether a streetcar project is even needed, is rehashed at the environmental assessment.

 

[ShonTron]

Long time coming, that's for sure. It's a no brainer that most transit projects should get expidited approval, though one recent EA process was so flawed, I take a perverse joy in seeing it bogged down in a neverending individual EA even though it is getting no one anywhere (particularly the airport).

 

[Hipster Duck]

The scope is limited to environmental concerns. Right now, everything that was argued over during the municipal planning process, including how wide a dedicated bus lane should be or whether a streetcar project is even needed, is rehashed at the environmental assessment.

This is the best part. However, does this mean that there will be a new and separate assessment to discuss non-environmental impacts of a transit project?

 

[DENTROBATE54]

Wasn't the York U extension approved from 2004 ? Just goes to show how long these EAs and political monkeywork can delay/bog-down expansion projects to the point the general public neither cares anymore (new population issues elsewhere arise hence favoritism for X subway project disappears in the vain of Queen, Eglinton, DRL) or have made the switch to private vehicles.

 

[RedRocket191]

Controversy alert:

Under these new rules, the municipality will be able to declare which technology they want to use from the start and will not have to justify it.

This COULD means that the Sheppard subway if officially dead and Transit City will be implemented as proposed.

 

[ShonTron]

Paging Dr. Khatru....

 

[scarberiankhatru]

You rang?

Why am I not surprised that this is only done when the fate of billions of dollars of useless streetcar lines hangs in the balance.

 

[DENTROBATE54]

^ It could work out that TC LRT lines get downgraded to BRTs though with next to no time spent building trackbeds, terminii, etc. I'm still putting my head around the relevancy of streetcars in general- more riders per trip vs. improved frequency of vehicles. I'd prefer taking the latter and stand-up rather than wait in the cold for a 'roomy' streetcar. TC itself isn't flawed, the debate around technologies to be utilized however...

 

[drum118]

I have no issue with the 6 months so long all the options are on the table and there is a true process of looking at them.

I will use the Western Waterfront from Union to Humber where the current EA is so flaw to the point the cart is before the horse.

Various options were 100% dismissed because it would upset that apple cart of the depute Mayor vision.

The current 3 EA's need to be scrap with one new EA to look at the whole Transit corridor in this area.

In fact there needs to be an EA for transit from Woodbine to Humber for the waterfront as a network is only good as the weakest link and as it stands now, there are 5 weak links. Even the 1992 EA doesn't support the current vision of TTC for the Western Waterfront EA.

I have no problem saying LRT is to be use in place of BRT or Subway or Subway in place of LRT, BRT, SRT if it can support ridership numbers and land density in the first place. Building something that cost $200m/km that will carry the same riders as an LRT/BRT at $35m/km is a waste of money as well taking money away from other projects that can service a larger base.

I see 120km of new subway in the GTA. I see 300Km of LRT not on the books

With this change now, can we get the SRT converted to an LRT or Subway so we have no more Orphaned systems?

Once the new Act is in place in June, TTC than can roll out the the next EA for St Clair and not wait until 2011 to start it because of the current mess on St Clair now.

Maybe the Sheppard subway will get converted to an LRT after all.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Fantastic. Next bit of good news would be the province taking over the subway system and all future mass rail planning and implementation.

 

[lead82]

All I can say is: Its about time!

Lets get all the TC EA's done ASAP and get on with buildings already.

 

[nfitz]

However, does this mean that there will be a new and separate assessment to discuss non-environmental impacts of a transit project?

From the comments in the article, that assessment is known as the "Official Plan". As this was completed already, with higher-order transit on many routes, without any objections, the process is finished for those routes.

 

[isittimetomoveyet]

Next bit of good news would be the province taking over the subway system and all future mass rail planning and implementation.

This is just wishful thinking on your part, yes?

 

[marcus_a_j]

From The Star, Feb 9, 2008

Transit review changes knocked

Activists say concerns may be ignored under new time constraints
Feb 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Paul Moloney
city hall bureau

Ontario's new speedy environmental assessments will prevent people from rallying against ill-advised transit projects being rammed through their neighbourhoods, community activists say.

While seen as a stalling device for not in my backyard (NIMBY) opponents, environmental assessments have afforded residents the time to research and point out flaws in proposed projects, they say.

In the case of the long-delayed high-speed rail link from downtown to the airport, residents of Weston were able to propose a better solution, said Mike Sullivan, spokesperson for the Weston Community Coalition.

"What the community has said is, `Look, let's build transit that can be used by the people,'" Sullivan said. "Make it a subway link. Give it 10 or 12 stops along the way, and it would still get to the airport really fast."

Sullivan said he objects to the NIMBY label.

"We're actually YIMBYs, yes in my backyard, but make it good transit. Do that, and you wouldn't get an objection from anybody."

A longtime critic of the city's dedicated streetcar line along St. Clair Ave. W., said a six-month limit for environmental assessments would allow the city and the Toronto Transit Commission to slough off local concerns.

Margaret Smith said environmental assessments force the authorities to listen.

"The truth really is they go through the motions," Smith said. "They really don't want to hear anything from the public except comments like, `You're doing a great job. Keep it up.'"

But the provincial government's move to impose a six-month limit on environmental assessments was hailed by Mayor David Miller, who said he recently discussed the issue with Environment Minister John Gerretsen.

"He understands when you're building transit, by definition, it's good for the environment," Miller told reporters yesterday. "The process has gotten out of control. It's preventing transit being built."

Miller is pushing for his ambitious multi-billion-dollar Transit City plan that would see dedicated streetcar lines running in their own rights of way along major streets.

"We want to get going," he said. "It's good for the people of Toronto. If people want to get around this city, we need to build rapid transit and we need to do it in a realistic time."

A six-month time limit means the focus will stay on the environment and not stray to include other concerns about a given transit project, said TTC chief general manager Gary Webster.

"It doesn't take away the public consultation, but it's a little more structured and focuses on the important issues and hopefully allows us to proceed," Webster said.

"The new process doesn't necessarily mean there's not going to be any battles," he added. "It just allows us to deal with the issues in a focused way in a shorter period of time."

Webster said he expects the Transit City lines will score well environmentally.

"People will use it, ridership goes up, there's all kinds of environmental benefits," he said, adding the TTC hopes to begin work on two lines, along Finch and Sheppard, early next year.

"In 2008, we're going out to the various communities to tell them that we're coming," he said.

 

[lordmandeep]

it won't really be a airport link if it has more stops then a local streetcar route you know???