Issues with 87^th Avenue/

University Avenue Proposal

The incredibly short turn around between the Open Houses and when the proposal is being sent to City Council leaves residents with little time or background information with which to analyze and discuss the proposals.  

The information provided by the City is very short on details, which they will argue is because they are at 'concept' stage.  The details will not be available until AFTER the Transportation Committee of Council votes on September 9th.  

Without these details however, residents are left with a lot of unanswered questions about a proposal that has massive implications for their homes and their communities.

Some examples of questions not answered by the City in their literature, or answered in any detail, are:

•  which side of the street the LRT will run down

•  which houses and businesses will be expropriated

•  process for dealing with residents whose homes are most affected

•  where the transit stations will be located and how they will affect existing development i.e. possible Meadowlark station

•  where the park and rides will be

• what the impact on traffic and commuting patterns on 142nd Street, 149th Street, 156th Street and 170th Street will be

• what the impact of altered traffic flow down 87th Avenue will be

• how access across 87th Avenue will be affected for communities located between the Whitemud and 87th Avenue

• location of new LRT garage

•  where the ridership numbers come from

•  how many cars will be taken off the road

•  how many buses will be replaced by LRT and how the remaining buses will feed into the system

•  how they arrived at cost projections and comparisons

•  time frame for development

• implications for rezoning and high density development along the route

• context of how this LRT route fits in with city planning for the LRT and Edmonton system as a whole

One of the most important questions not addressed in the City literature is the status of the Stony Plain Road option.  There are insufficient details in the city's information about why it has fallen off the table, and what the status of the City report on the option is.  Citizens without a clear understanding of why this option is not being supported, and who have many many unanswered questions with regard to the 87th Avenue option, are understandably frustrated.

Here are a few issues to spark a discussion. 

Cost of the proposal:

This route, which includes a bridge across the river and tunneling under an entire neighborhood (Valleyview) is estimated by city planners to cost $1.7 billion in today’s dollars, plus or minus 50%.   Ridership is, according to the transportation department, expected to be 40,000-45,000 people.   No time frame has been put on this proposal as yet, so costs can be expected to rise, as demonstrated by the 23^rd Avenue interchange project. 

When asked that question by the Stakeholder Advisory Committee, the city replied in a memo dated March 24th "the projected ridership is at the lower end of the thresholds for development of LRT." 

Is this proposal the best use of our limited tax resources? 

Where is the money coming from?

The City of Edmonton's current LRT proposals run into the billions of dollars.  The City is looking to provincial and federal governments to fund the lines as those dollars are far in excess of city budgets.   Actual construction of the proposed lines may not occur for many years without secure funding arrangements, but in the meantime residents whose homes are located along the lines are left in limbo. 

Should we be making decisions with major land use implications that have no dollars attached and no time frames?

Impact on traffic flow: 

The route proposed along 87th Avenue would intersect the flow of traffic between downtown and the Whitemud, which travels along north/south roadways like 142^nd, 149^th, 156^th Streets and 170th Streets.     

The West LRT expansion proposal does not address the large North South flow of traffic from areas like Riverbend and Terwilliger to 149th Street.  The proposed route would in fact impede that traffic flow.

This ‘transportation solution’ in the form of LRT expansion comes without a public understanding of how it will impact the already burgeoning traffic flows along that corridor. 

For residents of Rio Terrace, Quesnell, Patricia Heights, Elmwood or Lynwood the only way North, East, or West out of their neighborhoods is across 87^th Avenue.   While the City of Edmonton has agreed that access in and out of those neighborhoods would be 'impeded' there have been no answers as to remedies.

Without further information on how these and other potential new traffic problems will be addressed, how can we support the proposal?

Transit Oriented Development/High Density Housing:

Unless current land use plans are changed in the mature neighborhoods where the West LRT is proposed to run, the potential for ridership is limited.  This is worrisome on two levels. 

The first is that ridership in neighborhoods with primarily single family dwellings will not be high, a fact that makes the cost of LRT expansion questionable.   

The second issue is the implication that rezoning could happen in those mature neighborhoods to actually encourage higher density housing.  In fact, building the LRT would necessitate rezoning to foster ridership.  City blocks where homes have been expropriated and other residents depart to avoid living next door become ripe for larger scale housing projects. 

Is 87th Avenue the best place to focus the city's redevelopment efforts?

Criteria For Evaluation: 

It was clear through the Committee process that city planners were focused on finding the most direct, relatively cost efficient routes. In fact, a memo to the Stakeholder Committee on March 24^th, the city stated that “the question of urban liveability and a community-friendly approach are policy level discussions and beyond the scope of this project.” 

The impact of choosing this route, running directly through healthy, mature neighborhoods made up almost entirely of single family dwellings, cannot be underestimated. 

Previously healthy and vital neighbourhoods may now expect to be severed by sound buffers erected in the form of walls, and safe and easy access back forth across 87th Avenue to schools, parks and neighborhoods will be impeded.

260 houses are expected to be directly impacted by this proposal, either through outright expropriation or by the fact that their homes will now border an expanded 87^th Avenue with its added train crossings. 

What is the right balance between transit expediency and community vitality?

Alternative Routes:

Committee members were told that looking at alternative routes were ‘outside the scope of their mandate’, and so recommendation were formulated based on engineering studies done on two routes, both involving 87^th Avenue.   The status of a possible third option including Stony Plain Road is unclear.  

The constraints placed on the department left it unable to compare, in depth and in public, the 87^th Avenue route with alternatives that could possibly serve additional goals such as fostering ridership from other parts of the West End, opportunities for redevelopment, or connectivity to downtown. 

How do we know if this is the BEST West LRT route?

Other Processes

There are several other LRT extensions currently being developed or proposed, including the NAIT extension, the Clareview extension, the South extension and a possible Millwoods extension. 

Additionally, the City of Edmonton, together with its neighbors, has embarked on a Capital Region Planning Process.  One of the areas for joint work is transit.

Without a clear understanding of how the West LRT route fits into the big picture, how can we support the proposal?

What Can I Do? 

If you have further questions or concerns on the future of West End LRT development please contact lrtplan@edmonton.ca  and City Council at  City Councillors (Entire Group) to have your voice heard.