On May 1st, at a meeting of the Planning and Growth Management Committee, the long-awaited TOcore report (here, as submitted) was adopted with amendments (here, the amendments). The amended Downtown Plan will be submitted to City Council at its May 23-25 session.
The GDNA gave input into the May 1st meeting by way of this comment from Valerie, cc Joe Cressy’s office, as follows:
The GDNA gave input into the May 1st meeting by way of this comment from Valerie, cc Joe Cressy’s office, as follows:
| The curb has become the most contested part of city streets. "Where is my Uber, UPS, PizzaPizza support to stop?" As someone who has raised this issue at numerous community consultation meetings and OMB hearings, I was hoping to see something in the Downtown Plan under 8. Mobility ... Parking and Curbside Management. Existing buildings (both residential and commercial) must somehow adapt to the new reality of bike lanes, e-commerce, and ride-hail services. But City Planning, with input from Transportation Services, needs to assess new development on the basis of its ability to "internalize" rather than "externalize" such activity ... in other words assess its ability to accommodate UPS/Uber/PizzaPizza pick-ups and drop-offs within its own site rather than adding to curbside chaos. Could this translate into policy with additional wording (in italics) such as this? 8.28. Pick-ups and drop-offs, loading and parking activity shall be encouraged off-street wherever reasonable and practical to free up curbside space. New development applications in the downtown shall be assessed from the perspective of internalizing rather than externalizing curbside activity. |
Cressy’s office worked hard to incorporate various resident and stakeholder comments into the long list of resultant amendments. The short italicized amendment suggested by Valerie was revamped as a new policy to read as follows:
| Development will generally be required to limit and/or consolidate vehicle access points and will be encouraged to provide facilities for passenger pick-up/drop-off, loading and parking in off-street locations and/or within building footprints, in order to free up on-street curbside and public realm space and improve safety of pedestrians and cyclists. |
That’s one for the good guys!