Mirvish Village Task Group

Comments on Westbank submission #1 specific to Movement (Motor Vehicles, Bicycles, Pedestrians) 17 April 2016

Vehicles – Western Property

  • MVTG supports the City of Toronto feedback and direction (City Planning letter dated 11 December, 1015, Transportation Services letter dated 16 February 2016, and Transportation Planning letter dated 29 Feb 2016) that future submissions are to:
  • Conserve additional heritage properties on the western property
  • Includegreen space that may be on the western property
  • Maintain the Palmerston laneway as a single lane not supporting truck activity or an underground parking ramp.
  • In combination these three requirementsdrive acomplete re-think of the western property design having significant implications for vehicle movement in and around the remaining property
  • Additionally, MVTG challenges Westbankas part of future submissions to:
  • Approach the Palmerston laneway as also a pedestrian and bicycle access to the western side of the property and the potential greenspace; using water permeable materials and a design approach that draws the Palmerston Area tree canopy up the laneway, east-westthrough the potential greenspace, up and down Markham St, and across Lennox St.
  • Bring forward a more purposeful design for the “lost greenspaces” that currently exist between the heritage propertiesand the Palmerston laneway: connecting them – not necessarily physically – with the laneway and the potential greenspace

Vehicles - Eastern Property

MVTG supports the City of Toronto feedback and direction around the Western Property

In particular, MVTG has noted Section 8.5.3 (page 132) of the BA consultants report and fully supports Transportation Planning item #16 in their letter dated 29 February 2016addressing this point. Treating Lennox St. as a collector road feeding the site to / from the neighbourhoods will not go down well with residents.

Additionally, MVTG is serious concerns over the Lennox Street entrance / exit and the extraordinary level of anticipated congestion between the entrance / exit and the Bathurst intersection given peak traffic volumes(current state including Randolph

PU/DO + CTS Dome + Westbank) and only six car lengths to the intersection.

In the face of such extraordinary congestion we should fully expect frustrated drivers to use every other possible route to get in and out of the development. This spillage of vehicles into the adjoining neighbourhood is not acceptable.

MVTG challenges Westbank as part of future submissions to:

  • Work with the City and MVTG to design a prescriptive vehicle route in and out of the development which does not allow vehicle spill into the adjoining neighbourhoods
  • All options need to be evaluated includingdisrupting the street grid by closing Lennox to non-emergency vehicles between the entrance / exit and Markham St., additional entrance / exit configurations, separating the entrance and exit to different locations around the property, parking deck designs with large internal buffers, parking deck with pick-up / drop off spaces, short-term parking, long-term parking, etc.
  • While MVTG supports the idea of orienting Markham St. more toward pedestrians we believe that Markham St. and the proposed east-west laneway on the eastern property will need to clear roles supporting vehicle circulation
  • MVTG also recommends that the Manulife Centre parking and its associated road system be looked at as model that some key design elements could be drawn from

Bicycles

  • MVTG fully supports the City of Toronto feedback and direction that future submissions must:
  • Improve circulation inside the development with clearer separation of vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles
  • Most, if not all, bicycle parking needs to be at grade
  • Clear connections to current (Harbord) and future (Bloor, Palmerston) city bicycles lanes must be made
  • Additionally, MVTG challengesWestbank to improve from a “one-size fits all” below grade garage design with entrance / exit adjacent to vehicles to a “needs based segmentation” approach which addresses the different needs of different cyclists. Segments could include:
  • Residents who cycle to / from work who will have different needs from;
  • Residents who cycle occasionally / seasonally;
  • Visitors who are stopping at the market for a 20 min shop on their way home;
  • Visitors who are stopping for a 2-hour dinner on Markham Street; and,
  • Overlaid with the specific needs of children, parents and older cyclists
  • MVTG believes that achieving the desired bicycle portion of the desiredtranspiration mode-split requires this much more strategic approach which we anticipate will drive several at gradebike parking locations around the site with services aligned to segments and locations

Pedestrians

  • MVTG fully supports the City of Toronto feedback and direction that future submissions must:
  • Integrate with TTC Bathurst Street and Markham Street stations and that Pedestrian Cross-Walks are needed; and that West bank’s pedestrian circulation plan needs to clearly integrate with them
  • As stated previously, MVTG agrees that orienting Markham St.more toward pedestrians is the right aspiration. Realities of moving vehicles around the development requires that Markham Street continue to also be a key part of the vehicle circulation plan
  • Additionally, MVTG challenges Westbank to be more expansive in its approach to a tunnel connection between the development and the TTC Bathurst Station
  • Downtown Toronto is linked with an extraordinary PATH system – wide underground pedestrian walkways with stores, restaurants, and services at every turn
  • Modelling the transit connection on the PATH would be far superior to a “tunnel” which would only be preferred in inclement weather; the Mirvish Village experience could start from the Bathurst St. TTC station