My 'Outdoor Adventure' to the New Main Library

(originally posted at jensmith.ca)

Mark June 16th on your calendars, folks! We are finally going to be hearing back from the consultants hired by the Town about future uses for the (now former) library buildings at Bruce Street. It's being billed as a 'public information session', which is Town-speak for "the decisions have already been made", and given that the new library is already open and the old one closed, I'm guessing that decision won't involve maintaining a branch library at Bruce Street.

In the end there simply weren't enough of us who will be hurt by this to override the wishes of the majority. But more on that later.

Apparently June is 'Walking Month' (who knew?), so in order to promote more physical activity - and, perhaps, to counteract the criticisms that the new library is too far to get to easily from downtown - the Library has been encouraging people to walk, bike, or take transit to 'Main@Main':

"Make each visit to the Main Library an outdoor adventure. Take a hike or ride your bike. Take to the trails or take transit. Take time to play at a park. Walk, stroll or saunter!"

Since I've been one of the ones doing the criticizing, and since it was such a lovely day yesterday, I figured I'd take them up on it. I wasn't going to walk, of course - that's about a half hour each way from my house, and I'm simply not that energetic. So I decided to take my bike.

On the way, I stopped by the old library (which is only about a ten minute walk from my house, BTW). I took a peek in the windows and was rather shocked by what I saw. You see, when the arguments were being made about just how prohibitively expensive it would be to maintain a branch library there, one of the biggest expenses was supposed to be replacing all the shelving and furniture that was going to be moved to the new site. Hundreds of thousands it would cost. Really.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this...

As far as I can tell, not a stick of furniture has been removed. Not a shelf, not a table, not a chair. Hell, even the computers are still there!

Actually, I'm not surprised at all. From the very beginning I had questioned why the Library would want all that tacky old shelving in their shiny new facility. And now we know.

I continued on my merry way, perhaps unwisely choosing to take the Main Street route to my destination. It's not a pleasant route, especially with all the construction that is only going to get worse as they move forward with the rail underpass. In fact I took Child's Drive home, which is really the best way to go if you're coming from the south-west. But I wanted you to see that section of Main Street from ground level so you'd have some idea of what sort of "outdoor adventure" they're asking the seniors in those Millside apartment buildings to go through as they make their way to the new library.

The Main Street underpass is slated to take three years to complete

In the winter this is usually blocked with snow.
And watch your bike tires don't get stuck in the rails!

This is how most kids coming from schools south of the tracks get to Main Street

I take it this is NOT one of the 'trails' they're talking about

Things improve east of the GO station

I am assured that the bike racks are on their way

You will note that I was riding my bike on the sidewalk and not on the street, which is generally a no-no. In fact, I saw six or seven cyclists of all ages on this section of Main and not one of them was on the street - and for very good reason. Between the heavy traffic, the narrow lanes, and the sinkholes that tend to form around manhole covers there, you'd have to be suicidal to try it. And that's speaking as someone who used to commute along King Street in downtown Toronto on my bike every day.

I must say, when I finally got inside the new library I was very impressed. It's beautiful - big, well stocked, lots of cool features like a silent study area and a room where some kids were playing Kinect. My main complaint is that my favourite section - the local history and microfilm area - seems to have actually shrunk (just for the record, I'd be happy to help them develop a proper genealogy section for a reasonable fee).

I also found the place a little... well, bland. But I'm sure it will warm up once they've been in there a few months.

Let me be clear: I've always been in favour of having a new library and arts centre. I think it's a lousy location, but I never disputed the need for a larger, more modern main library. And count me among those who love the design of the new building.

What upsets me - and what upsets a lot of people, especially in Ward 2 - is that our concerns were never taken seriously. If they had been, this 'feasibility study' would have been done as soon as the project was approved - not six months before the buildings were to be vacated. In fact, the effects of removing the library from downtown Milton on the social and economic fabric of our central core and the town as a whole would have been examined and analyzed many years ago, as soon as the idea was first conceived.

Instead, we were thrown a bone. We're lucky it was an election year - otherwise they wouldn't have even bothered with that. But at least now our Ward 2 councillors will be able to make their token 'Nay' votes and tell us with pride that hey, they fought the good fight. Just don't ask them why they approved the bloody thing in the first place.

Having spent spent much of the past six months in seemingly endless debate with both councillors and residents who are unwilling to see the Town spend money to keep a branch library at Bruce Street, I can honestly say that, while I continue to disagree with them, I have a much better understanding of their perspective. You see, from their standpoint the new library is a net gain for the town as a whole. While some people will have reduced access, even more will have their access increased, so obviously it's a win. And from a purely linear point of view, ignoring all the physical and psychological barriers between here and there, it really isn't that far at all.

If that was all there was to it, their perspective would make perfect sense. If Milton was a single, homogenous entity with one part exactly like every other part, then it really wouldn't matter where we put facilities like libraries as long as they were evenly distributed. If 'downtown' was simply wherever the planners or the mall developers decided it was, then we could just call Main and Thompson 'downtown' and turn the old one into a tourist attraction.

Unfortunately, real live towns just don't work that way. And that's what I can't seem to get them to understand.

From Town to City: Milton's Infill and Intensification Plan

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to participate in the second of two public meetings discussing plans to increase development and population density in central Milton - otherwise known as 'Infill and Intensification'.

The Province has mandated that, in order to accommodate increasing populations and to avoid sprawl into agricultural areas, that certain towns increase the population density of their built-up areas to reach (in the case of Milton) a minimum of 200 people + jobs per hectare by 2031.

In practical terms, this means allowing for taller buildings, and developing 'brownfields' and underutilized spaces. The plan has resulted in predictable resistance from some members of the community who are envisioning crops of high-rise condo towers springing up in the downtown core, but the reality, thankfully, is much less terrifying.



To start with, the area where they are talking about doing most of this development could definitely use a facelift. I remember when we first came to Milton 15 years ago to look for a house, the first impression we had driving west along Main Street was of a dingy, haphazard collection of industrial units, strip malls, vacant lots - even an abandoned paint factory. The paint factory was torn down a few years later, but the sizeable lot it sat on remains an empty eyesore.

When the Loblaw's Supercentre and the attendant retail complex was built a few years ago at the corner of Main and Thompson, it was literally in the middle of nowhere. But with the residential developments now fully established to the east and southeast of town, the continued existence of this industrial wasteland between 'old' and 'new' Milton has become even more detrimental to the integrity of the town.

Filling that gap with high density housing and retail will (hopefully) create a larger, continuous downtown centre that will be accessible, walkable, and integrated with the older and newer parts of Milton. Additionally, increasing population densities in an area which, fortuitously, includes the GO Station will make in-town, commuter and intra-regional transit far more efficient and cost effective.




Concerns were raised about the loss of parking space at the GO station, but apparently there are several plans in the works that should make that less of a problem. In addition to making it easier to walk or bike to the station, there are plans to add two new stations at Trafalgar and at Tremaine which should ease the pressure on the downtown Milton station considerably. Also, at some point the line is going to be extended west. This should help a lot because a significant percentage of people using the Milton GO station are actually from Guelph, Cambridge and Kitchener.

Other interesting plans in the works include:

- moving the GO parking lot to south of the tracks, leaving the Main St. frontage for retail and apartments / condominiums.

- extending Main St. to Trafalgar, giving access to the 401 and the future GO station there, thus relieving traffic congestion downtown.

- incorporating a park / trail corridor parallelling Main Street to the north, thus allowing an alternate east-west route for pedestrians and cyclists.

- additional intensification to the west of the historic downtown core to create a western 'gateway' into both the old and new downtown areas.

I'm personally pretty excited by all this. Short of stuffing the whole town into a time machine and sending it back 20 years, I see this approach as being the best way of counteracting the sprawling, uncontrolled, unbalanced residential development that has been going on for the past decade, and transitioning Milton from a medium-sized town to a small city.

It's a shame they couldn't have done the infill first, but it is what it is.

(There's lots more information about the Town's plan on their website.)

My Two Cents on the Boyne Survey: Part 1

After explaining why I never go to those public consultation meetings in my last post, I decided to go to one of those public consultation meetings tonight. Just to check it out.

The project in question was the Boyne Survey / Education Village development, which is to extend across the south of town from James Snow Parkway to the far side of Tremaine, and all the way down to Brittania Road. The area involved is larger than the entire town of Milton was when I first moved here fifteen years ago.



This was the second public consultation meeting, so we are well enough along in the process that the issues discussed were more a matter of how rather than whether the subdivision was to be built. Still, it was an interesting exercise, and the folks running the show did indeed seem interested in what we had to say.

Before going to the meeting, I took a drive around some of the new developments to check out the good, the bad and the ugly. In this way, I had a better idea of what some of the features being discussed actually looked like in a new development setting.


This is what they call 'Mixed Use Retail'. These are made to be similar to traditional storefronts with apartments above and parking in the back, and are a welcome change from the now ubiquitous 'big box' retail development. The problem with this particular one on Holly Ave. is that it's only on one side of the street. Maybe they just haven't gotten to the other side.



This is a bad retail / residential design. This retail complex includes the only grocery store in the area, and yet it's about as unwelcoming to the surrounding houses as it can get because all the stores have their backs to the street. You could walk into the complex between the buildings, but it really doesn't look like they want you to. They want you to drive in off of Thompson like a good little commuter.



This is what they call a 'community park'. It's a nice idea - a central gathering place with a roundabout and houses facing onto it. I went to a Christmas tree lighting there once. Only two problems: it's huge (almost as big as the Milton Fairgrounds), and there's pretty much nothing in it but grass, saplings, and a couple of wooden structures at either end for the mayor to stand on and flip a switch.



This is one of the two buildings that comprise New Life Church. They sit on a huge lot which is, as you can see in the background, completely cut off from the surrounding houses by a fence.



This is an interesting and different approach to townhouse design, again emulating older urban plans with garages in the back facing onto an alley. But the scale is wrong. It doesn't look like an alley - it looks like a street.


The issue of scale is something that came up more than once in our discussions, and I think it may hold the key to the fundamental difference between new developments and older ones. Driving through Hawthorne Village and (worse) the Sherwood Survey, I noticed that almost everything is bigger than where I live. The houses are bigger, of course. The streets are wider. The parks are bigger. The stores and parking lots are bigger. About the only things that are smaller are the house lots and the trees.

The result is a certain... wrongness... that is difficult to quantify or even really complain about. After all, if a park is good, a really really big park is better, right? Except that it'll take you ten shadeless, featureless minutes to get from one side to the other, so screw it - let's drive.

I'll tell you more about what we talked about at the meeting tomorrow.

Funding Priorities: Milton-Style

Call it a tale of two headlines.

Yesterday's Champion has two stories about what Milton can expect to receive from the federal government's infrastructure stimulus funding package. First the good news:

Raitt, Krantz discuss funding program for centre repairs
By Tim Foran, Canadian Champion Staff

There will be no stickhandling necessary to play in this RInC.

That was the message from Milton Mayor Gord Krantz following a recent meeting with Halton MP Lisa Raitt at the Milton Sports Centre.

The two officials privately discussed the federal government’s two-year, $500 million Recreation Infrastructure in Canada (RInC) funding program announced in the recently passed federal budget.

Though the application process hasn’t been finalized, Krantz said he was confident there wouldn’t be bureaucratic red tape that might hold up the flow of funds.

“I don’t think there’ll be much stickhandling; it’s pretty straightforward,” said Krantz of the RInC program’s application process. “It’s a slapshot.”

Whether the Town scores though won’t be known for a while.

Milton has already identified $1.6 million in repairs to the John Tonelli Sports Centre and the Milton Leisure Centre as possible projects eligible for federal funding, but the Town is waiting for application details before submitting its requests.

And then there's the bad news:

$15-million library, art centre funding application denied
But projects not dead: Krantz
By Tim Foran, Canadian Champion Staff

The Town of Milton’s application for $15 million in federal and provincial funding for an arts and entertainment centre and central library has been rejected.

The two upper levels of government announced Friday a combined $667 million in funding for 289 infrastructure projects in Ontario communities with less than 100,000 people, but Milton’s November funding application wasn’t included in the list of successful projects.

Milton had applied for $7.5 million in funding from each of the two upper governments, money that would have been used toward the construction of the $26 million arts and entertainment centre and the $14 million central library.

“It would go without saying that I’m a little disappointed,” said Milton Mayor Gord Krantz of the unsuccessful application.

Sure. Sure you are, Gord.

Just to give you some idea of what the priorities are in this town, we currently have three hockey arenas (including the giant, multi-rink Milton Sports Centre), a curling rink, a massive Leisure Centre, two public pools (one indoor, one outdoor), and multiple baseball diamonds, soccer pitches, tennis courts, etc. We even have a lawn bowling / croquet field.

Our town's many music and theatre groups, on the other hand, do not have a single dedicated venue to perform in. Instead, they have to make do with either the high school auditorium, the Senior's Centre, or one of the dozen or so churches in town - none of which have appropriate acoustics, lighting, or anything else needed to put on a proper, professional production.

When the Milton Choristers had their 35th anniversary gala a few years ago, they had to do it at the Mississauga Arts Centre.

One possible reason given for why funding was denied for the arts centre and library are that the stimulus is specifically geared towards the ubiquitous "shovel-ready" projects, and the arts centre in particular isn't slated to break ground for a least another two or three years. But why is that? The arts community has been screaming for this centre for at least a decade, and Town Council approved it.. three? four years ago? And yet it hasn't even reached the design stage.

But hey - at least the new Town Hall Expansion is going lickety-split. Complete with its million dollar imported British glass wall.



Isn't it lovely? I wonder what the acoustics are like in there...

(cross-posted from HaltonWatch.)

Meet Michael Chong: Farm Warrior

Just to the north of Sprawlville lies the pastoral paradise known as Wellington-Halton Hills. Their federal Member of Parliament is Michael Chong, who is well known and respected in the riding as a man of conscience and integrity despite his rather unfortunate choice of party affiliation.

Most MPs - most good ones, anyway - have a pet cause that they have developed some expertise in and will champion when the opportunity presents itself. In Michael Chong's case, that cause happens to be the three interconnected issues that this blog was designed to address: sustainable agriculture, food security and urban sprawl.

Chong's website contains numerous articles and speeches he has written on these and many other subjects. Some of the best are his series on Urban Sprawl, his series on Agriculture (in which he comes out strongly in favour of supply management), and his speech to the Halton Federation of Agriculture in November, which was published in the Halton Compass. He even made a presentation at the McGill Conference on Global Food Security this September.

I had the opportunity to take a scenic drive through Chong's neck of the woods a few days ago. It was like taking a trip down memory lane to the Halton I remember from when I first moved here 15 years ago. So if Michael Chong can hold back the tide of sprawl and preserve and strengthen his riding's agricultural heritage, then more power to him. Even if he is a Conservative.

Can you imagine if he were Agriculture Minister?

How Walkable Is Your Neighbourhood?

This is very, very cool.

There's a website called Walk Score where you can actually find out your neighbourhood's "walkability rating", based on proximity to grocery stores, parks, shops, restaurants, libraries, etc.

It's not a perfect system, particularly for smaller Canadian places like Milton. For example, none of the three closest grocery stores to my house are listed, nor is the movie theatre, and they don't include things like banks, schools or the post office. Still, it's a neat way to get a quick idea of just how walkable any neighbourhood is.

For example, if you just enter "Milton, Ontario", it comes up as 70/100, or "Very Walkable". However, that's for a location corresponding to Town Hall, right in the heart of downtown. If I enter my address on Commercial St., it comes up as 62, or "Somewhat Walkable". I suspect it would do better if those grocery stores were in there.



My son's friend lives in one of the '70s developments in the NE quadrant of town - his house scores a 58, only slightly less than mine. However, a friend of mine in another older development in the SE quadrant only gets a 32, or "Car-Dependant", although that is definitely because there are things missing from the map.

As for the new developments, here`s a random sampling:

Dixon Drive: 30
Weller Cross: 13
Yates Blvd.: 10
Lancaster Blvd.: 10
Pettit Trail: 18
Ferguson Drive: 12

Just for fun, I also entered the Toronto addresses for my first home near Avenue Rd. & Lawrence (only 37, but still pretty), my second home near York Mills and Bayview (30 - ouch!), and my first apartment on Dovercourt (80!)

Of course, none of this takes into account things like street width and design, trees, sidewalks, bike accessibility, etc., but it's still a lot of fun. So you tell me - how walkable is your neighbourhood?

The 'Building Complete Communities' Post-Summit Report is Here!

I'm excited! Aren't you excited?

Esther Shaye (Garth Turner's right hand woman) attended this summit of urban planning experts and regional and municipal leaders back in June, and was so excited she couldn't wait to call and tell me about it when she got back. Today, one of the co-sponsors of the event (the Canadian Urban Institute) released its post-summit report, along with presentations by CUI President Glen Murray and others.

The focus of the summit was primarily on service and infrastructure funding challenges and solutions for municipalities (particularly in Halton and Peel), but at the same time summit presenters emphasized that designing that infrastructure around compact, complete, sustainable communities isn't just a good idea - it's a necessity.

Complete communities require a financially sustainable growth management strategy, but they also require that we design our communities in a new way. This presents new challenges to municipalities where suburban expansion into rural areas has been the norm. As such, these new communities can be more costly to develop and maintain to the standards GTAH residents currently enjoy.

Affording this type of development in the GTAH requires a commitment to fiscal reform and innovation as far-reaching as the commitment to developing in a completely new way to implement the vision for the Growth Plan.

To summarize the road-blocks that need to be addressed and overcome:

• Development Charges that are calibrated to “business as usual” growth and not the rapid, compact form of growth projected in the Growth Plan.
• Cash flow issues related to the partial/delayed payment of Development Charges.
• Long-term operating and maintenance costs of infrastructure not covered by Development Charges.
• A regressive property tax structure.
• Inadequate funding for growth-related provincial infrastructure and servicing (this includes not only the building of schools, community centres, and day care facilities but also their day to day operational funding).

Murray's presentation is particularly interesting as it cites several reasons why developing 'complete communities' based on New Urbanist principles is going to become even more vital in the future. These include:

- Climate change: both because of the necessity of reducing GHG emissions from transportation and housing, and because we will need to accomodate a new wave of 'climate refugees' very soon.

- Economic changes: "In the past, three out of every five jobs in Canada were in the manufacturing sector. Today, in Canada’s “New Economy” 80% of job growth is in knowledge-based industries, with the remaining 20% in service industries. This type of growth promotes the development of centres of innovation and is attracting a new and creative workforce to Canadian communities. This workforce has different needs and preferences than the one our communities were planned to accommodate. The creative workforce is attracted to urban centres where arts and culture are vibrant, recreational facilities are state-of-the-art, and lifestyle choices are wide-ranging. Communities that are able to attract and accommodate this new workforce often enjoy increased community assets."

- Demographic shift: because for a rapidly aging population, issues like walkability and easy access to health, social and cultural services are becoming increasingly essential. Also because our multicutural and multi-ethnic society has different needs and wants than those for whom the suburban model of development was designed.

Anyway, it's a great read for anyone interested in urban development issues, and does a great job of explaining exactly what kind of infrastructure funding challenges our municipalities face in a way that we lay people can understand.