ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION NETWORK PLAN FOLLOW-UP COUNCIL REPORT

ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION NETWORK PLAN FOLLOW-UP

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report titled “Active Transportation Network Plan Follow-up” be received for information.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to provide information on how staff can address previous Council comments in the short and mid term, while also allowing a Final ATNP to be submitted to the Province by May 31, 2023 to secure the Provincial Active Transportation Grant.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Staff have confirmed from the province that only a Final ATNP needs to be submitted to the Province to obtain the Provincial Active Transportation Grant ($50,000).

The Active Transportation Network Plan does not bind the Town of View Royal to the priorities identified in the plan. The ATNP is merely a high level report, based on a large picture spatial analysis and partnered with public consultation and involvement, to start the conversation on how to improve active transportation in the Town of View Royal. It is ultimately Council that determines what projects and priorities move forward as part of the budget deliberations stage. Given some Council comments relating to “wants versus needs”, staff can provide additional information in kind for future Council deliberation.

The ATNP also opens the door to a menu of possible design options. Such options could be presented to Council in the future as part of the detail design stage, which would be appropriate given that additional details may be required to provide the necessary information for Council.

Per Appendix A, 11 comments can be directly addressed by staff in the Final ATNP. However, staff require direction for 6 comments. Doing so will allow staff to finalize the ATNP without impacting Council’s ability to deliberate priority projects in the future.

BACKGROUND:

The chronology of events leading up to today regarding the review of the draft ATNP can be summarized as follows:

1. A Preliminary ATNP document was attached as correspondence for the March 21, 2023 regular Council meeting. Council actioned staff to provide them with the preliminary ATNP in an editable format so that comments / questions could be added for further staff review. This was provided to Council on March 28, 2023 with a commentary deadline at end of day April 4, 2023; this was done to line up with the collection of commentary at the upcoming public open house.
2. A public open house was subsequently launched on April 3, 2023 to inform the public on how their previous feedback influenced the decision, as well as to consult with them on final commentary to further the report to a Final ATNP.
3. Public and Council comments were reviewed the week of April 3, 2023 in preparation of the Draft ATNP, to be presented at the next Committee of the Whole.
4. Given the number of Council comments presented to staff, staff decided to defer the responses to the next Council meeting in order to meaningfully provide responses for Council’s consideration. As a result, staff and their transportation consultant, WATT Consulting, presented the Draft ATNP at the April 11, 2023 Committee of the Whole meeting.

Many comments were provided at the public open house. Many expressed support for active transportation improvements, and there were also many comments expressing concerns. Based on the review of the concerns, it was found that four (4) themes arose:

• Overall concern with multi-use pathways due to user conflicts
• Future infrastructure improvements should protect the tree canopy where possible
• Slip lanes and channelized right turns should be removed
• Need to slow vehicles down

Commentary at the Committee of the Whole meeting were similar. In addition to this, there were generally:

• Concerns that active transportation infrastructure may significantly impact commuter traffic
• Concerns that the ATNP puts less emphasis on the pedestrian and transit network
• Concerns on being bound by the priority list, as well as opposition to some projects identified in the list
• Concerns on being bound by the concept designs, as well as opposition to some design elements
• Concerns on level of engagement

Lastly, Council’s review comments of the preliminary ATNP are located in Appendix A of this report. Many of Council’s commentary noted above were included in this Appendix.

DISCUSSION:

In order to address previous Council comments while also enabling the final ATNP to be submitted by the funding deadline, the following commentary is provided:

Does the Recommended Priority List Bind and Restrict Us from Reprioritizing? No. It is important to emphasize to Council that the ATNP, while comprehensive in nature (utilizing a transportation needs assessment and partnered with public engagement), it is a high level document to start the conversation in meaningfully implementing active transportation improvements within View Royal. The ATNP is meant to identify gaps and opportunities within the existing network, and to map out goals, visions and priorities over a 10 year horizon. Regarding the mapping of priorities, the ATNP expressly states that the ATNP should be revisited in five years to determine if the priorities need to be reviewed or if other emerging priorities come to light.

Moving forward

Staff will be relying on future Councils to:

• Identify projects that Council deems to be a priority, and to approve and identify these projects as part of the annual budget deliberation process. Council may use the ATNP as a guide, but they are by no means bound to the recommendations identified in the document
• Provide staff with future direction in providing additional details that may aid in Council’s prioritization strategy. As an example, this could include seeking more detailed information to aid in prioritizing projects based on “needs over wants” (see Appendix A commentary)

Do the Recommended Concepts Bind and Restrict Us from Alternative Options? No. Per above, the ATNP is a high level document to start the conversation in implementing active transportation improvements. The ATNP is a visionary document and must be treated as a living document as a result. The ATNP’s design guidelines include information around the process of selecting appropriate facility types; this is provided as a means to create options for future discussion. Lastly, active transportation continues to evolve – concept designs may also evolve depending on future initiatives in both the field of active transportation as well as what emerges in active transportation with our neighbours.

Moving Forward

Staff will be relying on future Councils to:

• Provide staff with direction regarding alternative options for consideration in specific active transportation projects. This could be done when Council wishes to seek alternative options to vary scope, cost or design type.
• Provide staff with direction on which design option to pursue.

Will Further Public Engagement Be Conducted? Yes, as part of the detail design process for specific projects. While the level of engagement may vary from project-to-project, it is expected that significant engagement would be required for the top three priority projects and other projects that may see a significant improvement in active transportation assets. Council may also direct staff on the level of engagement during the budget deliberation process.

The engagement strategy, as brought forward to Council and carried at the June 7, 2022 regular Council meeting, included both in person and virtual engagement opportunities that provided valuable insight in what is important to walkers, rollers, cyclers and transit users.

Under the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) engagement spectrum, the engagement goal and commitment to the public falls within the Consult / Involve level: to obtain feedback and work with stakeholders throughout the process, to acknowledge the concerns that were brought forward and incorporate them into the vision process, and to provide feedback to the public on how their input influenced the decision.

Staff will continue to engage stakeholders identified in the Engagement Strategy throughout the detail design process, and can provide additional engagement if it is the wish of Council as part of an initiative or budget deliberations.

Does the ATNP Need to be Adopted In Order to Receive Funding? No. Staff have confirmed with the Provincial Government that only the Final ATNP (along with financial invoices) is required to be submitted to receive the Provincial Active Transportation Grant ($50,000).

Staff recommend that a conditional approval memo be appended to the front page of the ATNP, outlining the conditions of the municipal approval and additional requirements that the Town will endeavor to investigate in the future. An example of this could be to include the majority of Council’s comments identified in Appendix A as items to investigate in the future. This memo need not be included in the submission package to the Province: it would merely be used to ensure that such comments or potential requirements are not forgotten during the detail design process or as part of budget deliberations.

Moving Forward

Staff recommend that a conditional approval memo be appended to the ATNP to ensure that the comments identified in Appendix A are addressed in the future as part of the detail design process or budget deliberations.

How Will Council’s Comments be Incorporated into the Final ATNP? Staff and WATT Consulting have responded to each comment, summarized in Appendix A.

Per Appendix A, 11 comments can be directly addressed and incorporated into the ATNP (highlighted in green in the Appendix).

The unhighlighted columns are recommended by staff to be incorporated into the conditional approval memo, to be appended to the front of the ATNP for future reference. Staff consider this appropriate as many of the comments are detail design or initiative based that staff could bring forward in the future as directed by Council.

Staff have identified six (6) comments in Appendix A that require Council direction before the ATNP can be finalized. These comments are as follows:

Table 1: Council Comments to be Addressed

CONCLUSION:

Staff have confirmed with the Province that the ATNP does not need to be adopted by Council in order to receive funding, and that only the submittal of the Final report and financial invoicing documents need to be submitted to secure the fund of $50,000.

Council are not bound by the priority plan or the concept designs identified in the ATNP. The ATNP is a high level document that is meant to identify gaps and show needs. Staff expect that the level of service, project priority and the choice of design options be guided by Council as part of future budget and project deliberations.

Once the six comments identified in Table 1 are addressed, staff and WATT Consulting will work to finalize the ATNP. As many of the comments identified in Appendix A are detail design or initiative based, staff recommend appending a conditional approval memo to the front of the ATNP to ensure that such issues are addressed as part of future budget and project deliberations.

Following this, it is recommend that the Final ATNP with the conditional approval memo be presented at the next regular Council meeting for receipt.

ATTACHMENTS:

Appendix A – Responses to Council’s Comments