THUNDER BAY — A pair of eight-storey apartment buildings planned in the city's north end are one step closer to becoming reality,
The city is moving forward with rezoning the commercial property at 1151 John Street Rd., at the intersection of Chercover Drive, that will be the future site of two 45-unit buildings
“This proposed project will help the city's objective of infilling and using existing infrastructure to service more residential property. Essentially, the city would have to invest a little, if any money, in order to support the construction of 92 units on this property,” the developer, Marco Vallelunga, said to council at a public rezoning meeting on Monday.
“Also, as part of the Thunder Bay housing land needs, the city is trying to meet the goal set out by the Ontario government, and the housing target of 2,200 new homes by the year 2031. Our proposed project does, in fact, support this goal set out by the government.”
Several deputants voiced concerns that this project will increase traffic, especially at the intersection of John Street Road and Valley Streets.
A resident who said he has lived for 40 years near the proposed apartment building told council he has seen a significant increase in traffic.
“It's next to nearly impossible to make a left-hand turn at John Street Road onto Valley. Certainly not during high-traffic times, rush hours,” he said.
He said that in discussions with several neighbours, many said they would take an alternate route to avoid the traffic, going to Strand Avenue to get to the traffic lights and then proceeding down Valley St.
Another neighbourhood resident brought forward his observations with a traffic study he conducted between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on two Wednesdays in April at the John St. and Valley intersection.
He said 1,000 vehicles passed through on those two mornings.
None of the four total deputants said they were opposed to the construction of the apartment buildings.
However, they each asked the city to do something about the congestion and the potential for increased traffic by either adding lights at the intersection or widening John Street Road to four lanes.
Aaron Ward, manager of engineering, said the city is aware that with new growth comes new traffic.
“That area of town has seen a lot of growth residentially over the past few years, and we've been keeping tabs on that,” he said.
According to Ward, relieving the traffic congestion is tied to two long-standing projects: the Northwest Arterial Road and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) highway expansion.
He said that because of the MTO’s separation rules, the city wasn’t allowed to put a traffic signal at the intersection of John Street Road and Valley Street.
“The traffic signal is just too close to the highway. Traffic signals and could cause some issues and backlog on the highway, which is more unsafe than a backlog on the local residential roads,” he said.
A pedestrian crossover would not be safe for the intersection either, because of the high volume of traffic and the width of Valley Street.
“It would have to be like a traffic signalized intersection,” said Ward.
A solution to that issue could be the MTO’s proposal to build an overpass. This would remove the traffic signal at the highway intersection, Ward said.
In the meantime, the city can start the Northwest Arterial Road project, which involves widening John Street Road to four lanes.
Ward noted that there isn’t enough land to expand John Street Road currently. The city will need to acquire some additional land to ensure enough room for the four-lane road, sidewalks, and boulevards.
“That's where we need to acquire some slivers of land. If we weren't able to acquire those, then we may not have some of the other amenities that come along with that in terms of the boulevard space, but there's enough room to construct the physical road and the sidewalk,” said Ward.
Coun. Brian Hamilton, the only councillor to oppose the rezoning, asked Ward if the timeline to complete the apartment project would line up with the highway expansion.
Ward said, “that's up to the Ministry of Transportation. We can't dictate their timelines for the highway four-laning project.”
Hamilton noted that some of these developments might be happening faster than the city's development of the city’s infrastructure.
“I believe that we are advancing the development in this area at a faster pace than our infrastructure can manage, personally.
"I wish the development wasn't quite so big. For me, I'm not comfortable. I think that there is going to be untold congestion at this intersection. There already is today,” said Hamilton.
“I think that we should focus more on developing the infrastructure that will support the ongoing investment and the development in this area. Because I feel like the development is moving faster than the infrastructure to support it.”
Ward told Newswatch that an update on the Northwest Arterial Road project will come to council in June.
