There's a good chance 2nd Ave. won't happen this year, again

The ministry made the ruling after the Minnow Lake Community Action Network, the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance, the Minnow Lake Restoration Group, the Ramsey Lake Stewardship Committee and the local chapter of CARP made formal requests to the MOE to raise the level of environmental assessment required for the project from a Schedule B to a more intensive Schedule C.

They expressed concerns about increased stormwater runoff into Ramsey Lake and increased air pollution they say the project will create.

A similar request last year elicited the same response from the province – that it couldn't rule on the request because the project file wasn't complete.

In a letter, John Lindsay, chair of the Minnow Lake CAN, said he and other groups can't be blamed for the delays since the city didn't properly complete all the work required.

In an interview with NorthernLife.ca, Shelsted addressed each of the ministry's concerns. The main one – the fact that they didn't file the city's Transportation Master Plan along with their project file – is explained by the fact the draft plan was only released last week.

It contains Second Avenue, Shelsted said, and had the city waited for it to be approved they could have proceeded with Second Avenue. But they didn't want to delay the project, so instead they did a separate study for Second Avenue in hopes of starting last year.

"We make several references in the project file to the transportation master plan,” Shelsted said. “"The big thing, really, that the ministry said to us is (they) would have liked that document to be made public so people could have looked at how (we) generated (we) traffic numbers as part of (we) Second Avenue project file."

The ministry said taxpayers should have been able to review how the city arrived at the traffic projections and models being used to justify the road-widening. The MOE also said the city didn't explain why it didn't consider widening the road to three lanes, instead of five.

Shelsted said that's because once traffic counts reach 12,000 vehicles a day, as it has on Second Avenue, cities look at widening the road to five lanes.

"So we didn't look at three lanes because it was already over capacity,” he said.

The MOE also asked whether the city looked into what's called 'transportation demand management' and 'modal shift' as an alternate means of easing congestion.

Transportation demand management can work in cases where there's a major employer in the area of the road in question willing to change shift times for its employees to reduce morning and evening rush hour traffic. A modal shift is, basically, working to convince people to use alternate modes of transportation to cut down on vehicles using the road.

"We've incorporated a lot of that into the Second Avenue file because we're putting sidewalks there, we're putting cycle tracks there, we're putting in some bus bays — and we're trying to encourage people to use all of those," Shelsted said.

Ministry also asked why the city decided not to go with wide curb lanes, which were part of the original plan, which was changed to accommodate the cycling lanes that were asked for during the public consultation process.

Ministry also asked why they are widening if traffic projections are stable. Again, Shelsted said that traffic counts already call for widening the road.

However, he said traffic volumes will only remain stable if Silver Hills Drive is built by the developer as part of the Silver Hills development. If not, traffic on Second Avenue could increase.

"We have to do a better job of explaining that."

The MOE also wanted information on whether there's species at risk in the area, since the city didn't indicate that in its project file, something Shelsted admitted the city could have provided more detail on.

“We did include a map that indicates the location of species at risk, and there's nothing in that area," he said. "But we didn't do a site-specific study."

They're also being asked to indicate whether there are any heritage buildings or lands in the Second Avenue area.

The ministry also wants the information provided to council and residents at public meetings.

"They're saying this is what you showed to the public, then you should insert these as appendices," he said. "I think they're hoping by getting further definitions, maybe some of the requesters ... will have their questions further answered, and maybe they will change their mind.

"There's nothing here that says (the MOE) thinks we're going down the wrong road, we disagree with your recommendations and conclusions of the report. What they're asking for is, now that we've had a second look a this, we're going to ask you for a little bit more information."

When asked what the chances are that the project will begin this year, Shelsted said “small."

"We don't know if providing this additional information would satisfy the people who (objected),” he said. “There's a likelihood they will resubmit. But the city will do what it's been asked to do — provide a lot more documentation."

If there's a lesson to be learned from this case, Shelsted said the city in future will begin consulting the public much earlier in the process when planning the project. Neighbourhoods are demanding more input into the planning stages, and while it has been delayed, he said feedback on Second Avenue has made it a better project.