1. York Downs Is this good planning or bad planning?

2. The huge York Downs project appears to be rushed through
Many traffic and other issues remain unclear and much information is not yet available to council or to residents
The huge York Downs project appears to be rushed through
Yet council is about to vote!

3. Roads are already over capacity. Examples: 16th Ave and Kennedy
But York Downs adds  
2,295 units (+secondary suites)
7,250 people
1,343 extra vehicle trips in the peak hour (Poulos and Chung, developer’s traffic consultants)

4. Implications for 16th Ave and Kennedy
Poulos and Chung say 
7% will go north
93% will go south, west and east
That means
94 vehicles will go north
Rest (1,249 vehicles) will go south, west and east, i.e. use 16th Ave and/or Kennedy

5. How many extra cars on Kennedy and 16th Ave?
Poulos and Chung suggest something like
Kennedy – 249 in peak hour (south of 16th Ave)
16th Ave – extra 1,000 trips

6. What does it mean to add 1,000 cars to 16th Ave in the peak hour?
We went out to measure the traffic flow
8 am to 9 am
Westbound lanes at 16th and Normandale West
Good weather
An average day, certainly nowhere near as bad as it gets

7. What did we find?
One lane = 999 (going west) Other lane = 980 (going west) Total = 1,980 vehicles in the peak hour Each lane was at least 10% over the theoretical maximum flow number we received from our traffic consultants

8. York Downs is bigger than Ganonoque or Parry Sound
But Poulos and Chung estimate amazingly few vehicles for the whole development
Decision makers need to understand and explain this!

9. Will widening 16th Ave years after the development is there help?
At May 2018 meeting, York Regional planner said this: If we widen 16th Ave next weekend, it will be full on Monday morning So, the plan is to increase traffic by 50% (although road is already over capacity) and eventually build an extra lane, BUT No room for extra cars! Extra lane is for HOV and transit No good transit is planned (even in 2041) It’s crazy . . .

10. Suggestion #1: Keep things as they are until we understand the situation
Very foolish to destroy the golf course, its 4,000 mature trees, its animals and its birds and only then worry about the consequences
Change nothing until understand implications of the development!
Why destroy our rare green space?
Why spend money on widening arterials that
will still be choked?
Better to spend the $10 million per km on
transit
Council should be responsible and prudent (rather than the opposite)

11. Suggestion #2: Let’s work together to improve the democratic process
Examples of things that make residents feel uncomfortable:
The in camera discussions even within 48 hours of the vote
The in camera voting
The way the developer’s consultant chats with the planners throughout the discussion
These things distort the democratic process. They make residents disillusioned and apathetic
And, as Plato said around 2,400 years ago
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”