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Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee
Meeting Notes
January 10, 2002
Trout Lake Community Centre
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
In Attendance: Anne Roberts (Chair), Margaret Marquardt, David Marcantonio, Kim Nulty, Uli Rasenhorn, Peter Wohlwend, Stan Jang, Raymond Chang, Ken Baker, Paul Calderhead, Tom Little (Recorder).
Also In Attendance: Catherine Buckham, Planning Department, City Hall; Brian Riera, Planning Department; Wayne Pledger, Engineering Services, City Hall; Melina Scholefield, Engineering Services; Rob Hodgins, Consultant, Mobility Solutions
1. Knight Street Study
Anne Roberts introduced several guests invited to the meeting to report on the progress of the Knight Street Study and seek input.
Melina Scholefield is a new staff member in Engineering who will devote time to the Study.
Wayne Pledger noted that progress has been slower than expected due to many demands on staff time. The Knight Street Study should speed-up with Melina on board. Rob Hodgins has been hired to do an analysis of the Knight Street corridor. Brian Riera is looking at land use issues.
Brian Biera noted that all aspects of the study will be pulled together for a report to Council with recommendations. The goal is to have a draft report ready by summer. The staff team will be seeking input on four issue papers: traffic & safety; transportation (present & future); land use & community; environment (noise, air pollution, vibrations, etc.).
Rob Hodgins presented information on rush hour use of the Knight Street bridge and major Vancouver arterials. He noted that Knight Street is not heavily used by South Vancouver residents heading downtown. The 1999 GVRD survey showed that traffic to/from the port accounts for 40% of Knight Street traffic. Greater use of trains and containers may ease Knight Street traffic somewhat. Public transit volumes on Knight are light.
Discussion:
- An air quality study is possible, but not guaranteed. Noise is seen as one of the major issues on Knight (measurements up to 83 decibles at Knight/57th have been recorded)! There are no plans to measure traffic speed, though it could be proposed if demand for it was strong enough.
- There was general agreement that drivers treat Knight as a speedway, not as part of a neighbourhood. There are many red light violations and only 4 cameras at intersections. More enforcement is needed.
- Structural changes are needed to slow traffic. Perhaps the City should allow parking during rush hours and/or more commercial frontage along Knight St.
- Special attention is needed at Kingsway/Knight/King Edward area to ensure success of the proposed KCC Neighbourhood Centre.
- Tinkering with the flow on Knight Street could negatively affect Fraser & Victoria streets.
- The Knight Street bridge volume makes it hard to make changes.
- Is it possible to designate "truck lanes" along Knight?
- Staff noted that container traffic through the port is expected to double in the future.
- Brian handed out 2 items: Port of Vancouver Regional Road Connections pamphlet and a draft copy of "Knight St. Whole Route Analysis, Land Use and Community Report". Input on the draft issue paper should be emailed to Cathy Buckham.
- Wayne & Brian noted that the policy directions in CityPlan and the KCC Community Vision are accepted by the Engineering & Planning Departments as a given.
- Anne thanked the guests and reiterated the need for the Knight Street Study to follow the directions of the KCC Community Vision.
- Brian said they would like to meet with our committee one more time before submitting their report to Council.
2. Review of Draft Policy Report: Update on the Implementation Of Dunbar and Kensington-Cedar Cottage Community Visions,
A copy of the report was mailed to all committee members. Feedback was given by those present.
There was consensus that certain parts of the report overstate progress to date, or, attribute progress to the Community Vision that would have happened anyways.
With respect to neighbourhood centres in KCC, Anne reported on her follow-up to the Committee's request that the City purchase the Kingcrest site at Kingsway & Knight. Anne contacted Mayor Owen, the City property manager Bruce Maitland and the Director of CityPlans, Ann McAfee. Ann McAfee phoned Anne to say that the request was being considered.
It was felt that Ms. Anderson's Council report should position Kingcrest as the focus of the KCC Community Vision. The Committee has done everything it can to get the land developed, now it is up to the City to help make it happen.
Anne, Uli, Ken, Raymond and Tom agreed to meet on January 31st, 7:30pm, at Kensington Community Centre to prepare a presentation to Council for the February 7th meeting at City Hall .
3. Building Better Neighbourhoods Coalition
The KCC CityPlan Committee decided to join the coalition to build better neighbourhoods, based on Direction 9.3 in the KCC Community Vision: "No Malls and Big Box should be allowed in KCC, or close enough to threaten the economic health of the local shopping areas". The Coalition's next meeting is January 17th, 2002, 7 p.m. at Kensington Community Centre for those interested.
Meeting adjourned.
Next meeting on Thursday, February 7th, 2002 at 7:00pm at Trout Lake Community Centre.
(Note: same day as presentation to Council - see item 2 above).
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