Photo Tour: City of Edmonton offices in the Edmonton Tower

About a month ago I had the opportunity to tour the brand new City of Edmonton offices in the Edmonton Tower. The City is the largest tenant in the new building, leasing a total of 17 floors (with a 20 year lease). The goal is to consolidate a number of existing City offices into the new tower, which will house about 2,300 City employees when the move is complete later this year.

Our tour began on the sixth floor, which will be home to members of the Sustainable Development department. Robert Guenther, Project Director of the City’s Civic Accommodation Transformation, and Scott Varga, Workspace Design Lead, showed us around. They told us the project is on track to achieve the LEED Gold designation.

As you might expect, the offices feature an open floorplan but have been organized into “neighbourhoods” to group colleagues together. Throughout each floor there are desks, shared desks or hotelling spaces, breakout rooms, meeting rooms of various sizes, and a variety of other types of workspaces. The walkways felt a little cramped at times, but the workstations themselves felt spacious and inviting.

Employees are encouraged to work where and how they want to, and that includes in the large cafe space that is on each floor. It is intended to be more than just a kitchen, with movable furniture (they pointed out “things on casters” a few times during the tour) and tech amenities to facilitate meetings. The City refers to this varied way of working as “alternative work strategies” and they think it’ll help to attract and retain employees. At the same time, they expect about 90% of staff will work “similarly” to how they did in other offices.

On the sixth floor we got to see a pretty neat drafting area, basically a large standing desk with storage underneath surrounded by whiteboards. Other floors might have something different in that location, something more suited to the work being done there.

Every workstation features a sit-stand desk, which I think is amazing! The furniture all looks brand new but is mostly stuff the City already had, refurbished using recycled materials. About 40% of the furniture, including the walls of the cubicles, have been repurposed from elsewhere.

Each floor features roughly 118 workstations and will be home to an average of 130 people. Every employee gets a locked cabinet for their stuff, but some employees will not have their own desks. Those employees will use the hotelling desks that are available, or the meeting spaces.

There are about 25 meeting rooms on each floor, with the nicest conference rooms located on the exterior walls which means they feature lots of natural light. Speaking of light, all the light fixtures are LED and they’re dimmable. Smart monitoring systems will adjust the brightness of the lights depending on how bright it is outside. Other sensors monitor and automatically adjust air, heat, and other systems. The offices are climate controlled using “chilled beam radiant heating/cooling” in the ceiling, and apparently this is just the second office in Edmonton to use the technology (PCL’s headquarters is the other).

There are a variety of breakout areas throughout each floor plus small meeting rooms called “now rooms”. One of the most interesting things about the office is that the walls are all component-based and can be taken down and moved in a couple of hours. That means that rooms are not 100% silent, but I went inside one and closed the door and had to strain to hear the folks outside. Additionally, the ceiling on each floor features a unique sound masking system that produces a sort of white noise that can be made louder or quieter as required.

It was a bit harder to see all of the tech featured in the new offices, but it’s there, mostly behind-the-scenes like the smart sensor systems mentioned previously. Internet access is full gigabit, with increased wi-fi capacity compared to previous City offices. The building will also feature Open City Wi-Fi for guests. In an effort to continue reducing paper use, many meeting spaces feature Chrome boxes and the associated A/V to facilitate web meetings and document presentation.

The outside of the Edmonton Tower features the revised, sans-serif City of Edmonton logo on the east and west sides of the building. Though it is often referred to as “the City tower” or something along those lines, it is officially just called “Edmonton Tower”.

There’s nothing on the south side (which features the distinctive curve) but the north side is home to a large 4K screen that will be used for art and messaging (not ads), as captured in this photo by Jeff Wallace:

The City’s move to the tower began on November 4, and every two weeks or so another group of employees move in. The City expects the move to be complete this summer. They are upgrading Century Place, where some staff will remain, and Chancery Hall is also expected to remain in use by City staff for the time being.

Over the next couple of months you can expect new public art on the main floor of the Edmonton Tower. Next month, the brand new Edmonton Service Centre will open on the second floor, providing a one-stop shop for City services like transit, permits, and licenses.

You can see more photos of the workspace here. For more on the importance of office design, see this PDF report featuring the Civic Accommodation Transformation project.

Linda Cochrane is Edmonton’s new City Manager

Mayor Don Iveson announced this morning that City Council has hired Linda Cochrane as Edmonton’s new City Manager. A long-time City employee, Linda has been the Acting City Manager since September when Council decided to fire Simon Farbrother.

Here’s what the mayor had to say on why Linda was selected:

“As you know, Linda had been Acting City Manager since the fall of 2015. In that time she has earned the complete trust of City Council through her continuing work to transform the structure of the corporation and lead a more open and effective local government.

It is important to note that this was an international search with applications from candidates far and wide. The interest of so many talented applicants is a wonderful compliment to our community, our vision, and the work of our administration – things we should all be immensely proud of. More to the point, it is a reflection of the quality of Linda’s tremendous service and inspiring leadership that she was considered best amongst this class of impressive candidates.”

Council has signed Linda to a three year term, with options to renew. Linda was very clear back in January that she wanted to be considered for the role. Today she was elated to have been selected, telling the Journal: “I’m just over the moon. It’s a realization of a lifetime dream. I couldn’t be happier.”

Meet the new @CityofEdmonton City Manager, Linda Cochrane #yeg #yegcc #yegdt #yegmedia pic.twitter.com/xLLB96JKnA

— Bin Lau (@thebinster) March 16, 2016

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Linda started her career in aquatics programs, first in Edmonton as a swim instructor and then with Spruce Grove. She returned to the City in 1982 and started climbing the management ladder. She was director of the Kinsmen Sports Centre and in 1990 was asked to take on the role of director at the Valley Zoo. It wasn’t long until she was in charge of the City’s parks and recreation centres. Linda was most recently the general manager of Community Services (now Citizen Services after the reorg she announced in January), a position she took on in 2006.

Linda has worked on a number of high profile projects throughout her career. She defended the Valley Zoo’s care of Lucy the Elephant and refused to bow to pressure from Bob Barker and others who wanted Lucy moved. Linda was one of only four women on the eighteen-person bid committee for the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. She led the charge to build the Terwillegar Rec Centre and led a review of all the City’s facilities. Most recently of course she earned the nickname “cabbie whisperer” for her quick action to restore order during contentious Council discussions on Uber.

Linda Cochrane, #YEG's new City Manager, and #yegcc. pic.twitter.com/Ei7SCIaocf

— YEG Mayor's Office (@YEGMayorOffice) March 16, 2016

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Linda is Edmonton’s first female City Manager. That’s particularly interesting given that she is the only woman on the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT). “Between 2012 and 2015, the percentage of general and branch managers who were woman held steady at 22 per cent. It’s now 16 per cent,” reported the Journal. Of course there’s just one woman – Bev Esslinger – on City Council as well.

I wrote back in November that I didn’t think Linda was likely to get the job. That comment was based not on her abilities, but on what Council had publicly stated they were looking for. Mayor Iveson’s statement back in September said “the scale and complexity of the challenges ahead demand a fresh perspective” and that Council’s goal was to “hire someone who can meet the aspirations of this city head-on and help build the kind of city we can all be proud of.” It seemed as though Council wanted someone from the outside.

I do think Linda is a great choice for City Manager. She is well-known and widely respected at the City has earned a reputation as someone who gets things done. Linda will tell it like it is, and that’s certainly important to Council. She has been supportive of the ongoing culture shift at the City and has talked often of leading through service. Linda is ideally suited to guiding the City through turbulent times.

In just a few short months as Acting City Manager, Linda has really put her stamp on the organization, earning Council’s trust, the public’s admiration, and leading a key reorganization. I can’t wait to see what she accomplishes in her new role.

Improving The Way We Engage in Edmonton

There’s a lot of interesting work happening right now on public involvement in Edmonton with the Council Initiative on Public Engagement. With luck the effort will transform public engagement from an exercise in frustration to one based on hope and possibility.

“From October 2014 to June 2015, the Council Initiative on Public Engagement initiated a broad dialogue with a cross section of Edmontonians, City staff, as well as the mayor and members of City council. This included over 40 workshops and outreach events listening to about 1,000 voices and leveraging hundreds of volunteer hours.”

The first phase of the initiative wrapped up in September 2015, and the second initiative is now well underway.

Vision, Policy, & Framework

Below I’ll cover the background of Edmonton’s public engagement initiatives, the formation of the initiative, a summary of the first phase, and an update on the next steps.

Background

The City of Edmonton undertook to “improve and clarify” its varied and unstructured approach to public engagement in the early 2000s, resulting in a City Policy and Procedure (C513) on public involvement. “The City was entering a period of extended growth and citizens’ expectations were growing for how they should be involved in the decisions that affect them,” is how Administration recently reflected on the initial work. The policy included the following commitment to citizen engagement:

“The City of Edmonton believes that a key element of representative democracy is that people have a right to be involved in decisions that affect them.”

The City also developed a framework called Involving Edmonton which “consisted of Core Commitments and Standards of Practice, a Continuum of Public Involvement, the Public Involvement Roadmap, and a Public Involvement Plan (PIP) template.” It received a minor update in 2008, and has remained the key tool City staff are expected to use to guide their public engagement activities.

From 2007 to 2012, the City also used a piece of software called Consultation Manager which was supposed to help staff with planning and reporting on events. The City dumped it “due to lack of use, an unfriendly user interface and high monthly fees.” The City also experimented with different staff roles, establishing a Public Involvement Coordinator position in Transportation Services in 2009, the only department to have such a position. Also in 2009, the City launched the Centre for Public Involvement in conjunction with the University of Alberta.

In 2012 the City revamped its Office of Public Engagement (originally formed in 2006) with a new short-lived initiative called the Corporate Approach to Public Engagement (CAPE). It was late that year that Cory Segin joined the City to lead the office, which moved under Corporate Communications.

Cory Segin, Manager, Office of Public Engagement

The 2013 Municipal Election was a turning point on public engagement. Some Edmontonians had been discussing possible changes and improvements for years, but it was during the election that the need to do better became real for Council and administration. “Many Edmontonians, stakeholders, Councillors, and members of City Administration observed that the City faces a number of challenges and opportunities in public engagement, including responding to evolving citizen expectations, supporting growth, ensuring consistent and quality processes, and capitalizing on opportunities for innovation.”

In 2014, the City Auditor conducted a Public Involvement Audit. While the audit found that “Administration was compliant with City Policy C513, Public Involvement and the Involving Edmonton Framework,” it also identified eight issues with the City’s public engagement process.

“We found misalignment between the expectations of the public involvement process as expressed by City Council, those shared by members of the public, and those documented in the Policy and Framework. We found that the Policy and Framework do not provide sufficient guidance to Administration to meet Council’s expectations of public involvement.”

Shortly after the election, Administration “designated public engagement as one of the City’s top three priority initiatives” while Council committed to its own initiative to improve public engagement. The two initiatives were quickly combined to form the Council Initiative on Public Engagement, led by Councillor Ben Henderson and Councillor Michael Walters.

Phase 1

The initiative’s primary goal is to create a process that will improve public engagement in Edmonton and it was determined that the work of the initiative would take place in phases.

“Public engagement, civil society, direct democracy, collaborative governance; when we talk about public engagement what do we mean? If we agree that public engagement is important, what does good public engagement look like?”

Those are the questions that the initiative aims to answer. The work was originally organized into four main streams:

Engaging on engagement – discussing with Edmontonians and stakeholders options to improve the CIty’s public engagement.
Continuous improvement and innovation – working with branches and department teams to implement pilot projects and different approaches to make positive changes as we go.
Community leadership and capacity building – working in partnership with community leaders and groups to re-energize and leverage our civil society.
City culture and framework – examining how leadership and administration can change to support improved public engagement.

Phase 1 Timeline

Dozens of workshops took place from October 2014 through June 2015. I had the opportunity to attend a few of the workshops during that time, including a workshop on Public Engagement Obstacles in April 2015. The purpose of that particular workshop was to try to determine, “what is getting in the way of effective public engagement?” We worked in groups of 6-8 people to brainstorm obstacles, after which we clustered and labelled them. Some of the obstacles identified included “mutual distrust”, “competing priorities”, “gaps in understanding”, “unmet basic needs”, “inconsistent or poorly executed processes”, and “tension between individual and community interests”.

Public Engagement Obstacles Workshop

It was a productive session, and I really appreciated the working assumptions the workshop began with:

Everyone has wisdom
We need everyone’s wisdom for the wisest result
There are no wrong answers
The whole is greater than sum of its parts
Everyone will be heard and will hear others

Another group came together in June to review and discuss strategies to overcome the obstacles that had been identified. They also worked to identify the key areas of focus for phase 2 of the initiative. The first phase came to a close with the publication of the Final Report in September 2015.

“This first part of Phase 1 of the Council Initiative on Public Engagement provided a foundation of collective wisdom on which to build. It was the first step in a long journey. Together, we started to build a shared understanding and a common voice on why public engagement is important and what we should strive for as a City in our approach to public engagement.”

The end of Phase 1 also marked the start of the Advisory Committee, made up of City staff and community members and modeled on the approach used to develop the Winter City Strategy.

Phase 2

The work of the initiative is now being led by the Advisory Committee, with five working groups focused on the strategic areas of focus identified during Phase 1.

Community Leadership: Expand, diversify and facilitate community involvement and leadership in public engagement by fostering connection points and sharing influence.
Evaluation, Reporting and Recognition: Create a culture of excellence and accountability for public engagement through improved transparency, measurement, and celebration.
Vision, Policy and Framework: Create organizational foundations that support, inspire and guide effective public engagement as One City and Open City.
Learning and Training: Improve public engagement knowledge and capacity through learning, leadership development, skill building, and training (City and citizen).
Tools, Technologies and Practices: Expand and diversify public engagement tools and techniques, and pilot innovative public engagement processes.

Each working group is responsible for determining its own priorities and action plans, and each has the support of a senior member of Administration. In 2015, the initiative’s budget was $425,000 thanks to contributions from various departments and branches. A similar budget is expected for 2016 and 2017.

Councillor Ben Henderson

The working groups were established in the fall, and a working group assembly took place in January 2016. Councillor Henderson spoke at that session about the initiative, and said the decision was made “not to rush this”. He reminded everyone that we “can do something really remarkable” and that there’s “no need to jump to the obvious answer or solution”. You can hear more from Councillor Henderson in this video:

Claire Ashton, the initiative’s project coordinator, provided an overview of the progress to-date at the session and said that she was feeling inspired by everyone’s efforts. In a recent email to all participants, she said “doing things differently in the area of public engagement will require a great deal of commitment from all of us.”

Claire Ashton, Project Coordinator, Council Initiative on Public Engagement

Claire is featured in this video overview of the initiative:

We also heard from the working group chairs, who each described the work of their group and shared a reflection on the initiative thus far. In a show of commitment and support, nearly everyone from the Corporate Leadership Team was present, including City Manager Linda Cochrane.

Some members of CLT

Linda told us that the City will up its game in resourcing public engagement and that “there is definitely permission to explore this and take it where it needs to go.”

I am very happy to be a member of the Vision, Policy, and Framework group! We are tasked with crafting a definition for public engagement, drafting the vision and principles that other working groups will build upon, and we’ll create the framework and policy that will be critical for implementation. We will of course be exploring various engagement approaches to gather input and feedback as we undertake this work.

Our timelines are aggressive. Another working group assembly will take place next month. A public event is scheduled for May where the definition, vision, and principles will be launched, and the next steps will be outlined. The initiative is slated to wrap up its work by the end of the current Council term in 2017, though hopefully it doesn’t end there. “The goal is to achieve a continuous improvement program over longer timelines which builds on previous work and recognizes that lasting improvements are often part of a broader and sustained culture and organizational change effort.”

Get Involved

There are many ways to get involved in the initiative. Start by checking out the City’s Public Engagement Calendar and watch for upcoming events, like the one in May. On Twitter, the hashtag #yegengage is being used to post updates and discuss the work of the initiative. And if you’re not already a member, consider joining the Edmonton Insight Community to participate in regular surveys on City initiatives.

The City of Edmonton is reorganizing in support of functional integration

The City of Edmonton is being reorganized effective March 1, 2016 around a new mandate of integration based on function. Acting City Manager Linda Cochrane announced the changes yesterday in an email sent to all City of Edmonton staff. She wrote:

“This new structure bundles work in departments based on function: all operations work, all infrastructure work, all planning work, all financial and corporate services work, all citizen services and all communications/public engagement work will each be grouped in the same department.”

The City’s last reorganization took place back in 2011, roughly a year and a half after Simon Farbrother was hired as City Manager. That restructuring was largely cosmetic though in that it didn’t dramatically alter the silos that had existed since the late 1990s (though the Financial Services and Infrastructure Services departments were later merged). This reorganization is all about getting rid of silos and breaking down barriers to more integrated service delivery. And the most notorious silo of all, Transportation, is now gone. More dominoes are indeed falling.

Here is the new organizational structure:

Click for a larger version with the branches & managers

So previously there were five departments, plus the Office of the City Manager (you can see the old org chart here):

Community Services
Corporate Services
Financial Services & Utilities
Sustainable Development
Transportation Services

And now we have six, plus the Office of the City Manager:

Citizen Services
City Operations
Communications & Public Engagement
Financial & Corporate Services
Integrated Infrastructure Services
Sustainable Development

The new structure “bundles work in departments based on function.” This is perhaps most evident in the dissolution of Transportation Services. Here’s what happened to each of that department’s branches:

Edmonton Transit is now in the City Operations department
LRT Design & Construction is now LRT Projects in the Integrated Infrastructure Services department
Roads Design & Construction is now Transportation Infrastructure in the Integrated Infrastructure Services department
Transportation Operations is now in the City Operations department
Transportation Planning is now in the Sustainable Development department

Mayor Iveson spoke to the Journal about the changes yesterday, saying: “we’ve been talking about this for years; the transportation department, quite frankly, was very siloed and off on its own.” Well, no more.

Why now?

I had the opportunity to speak with Acting City Manager Linda Cochrane about the changes today. I wondered about the timing, given that a new City Manager could be coming on board in a few months and may want to make his or her own changes. “That’s true, some things could change with a new City Manager,” she acknowledged, but said that “Council endorses the bundling of services in a functional way.” She feels there is “strong support” for the new structure. On top of that, Linda is very interested in the role herself and will be applying to become the new City Manager.

During last year’s budget deliberations, Council asked for a full service review of everything the City is doing. Couldn’t that have an impact on the structure, I wondered? “A structure based on function will facilitate the service review,” Linda said. “It will let staff and stakeholders speak in functional ways and that will further the 2% initiative too.” She noted that this structure provides a different lens through which Administration can work to find efficiencies.

A number of City staff I spoke with about the change referenced the importance that Linda places on servant leadership. That’s reflected in her message to staff as well, where she wrote: “as always, service to citizens is our priority.” I asked if she had any other key messages for City employees. “Keep doing the good work you’re doing,” she replied. “That work is important on its own, but it’s also part of the context of service delivery.”

And that speaks to what I think is the big factor driving this restructuring: integration. “There is some phenomenal work taking place in the organization,” Linda said. “But we need to get better at integrating the good work that is happening.”

It’s about integration

There are four principles that “underpin the development and implementation of The Way Ahead,” which is the City’s strategic plan.

Innovation: A planning approach and operational culture within a municipality that encourages and enables continuous improvement and the exploration and adoption of new techniques, technologies, products and ways of operating in order to improve results and lead progressive change.
Integration: A holistic view of strategic planning that acknowledges the interrelated and interdependent reality of complex urban environments.
Livability: A set of interrelated factors that influence people in choosing where they live and reinforce their sense of well-being.
Sustainability: A way of living that meets the needs of the present and does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The reality of the last eight years or so is that the City has been tackling these things relatively independently from one another. On some, there has been good progress. Livability is central to the City’s existence and much of the work of “The Ways” has addressed this. Council’s 2% and the changes in culture really address innovation. And with The Way We Finance, there’s been a good start on addressing the City’s sustainability. That leaves integration.

I think the one tangible attempt at addressing the integration principle was the creation of the Great Neighbourhoods Initiative. It falls under the Neighbourhoods branch of Citizen Services, but it is really a cross-department effort to more efficiently deliver services of all kinds, to conduct comprehensive neighbourhood planning, and to improve communication with residents. And it has worked well as a way to revitalize our mature and high-needs neighbourhoods. In fact, one City report said it exemplified a “One City-One Voice” approach to “leading City efforts to deliver services in a coordinated, effective and efficient manner.”

This reorganization builds on that success and is all about addressing integration. Here’s another excerpt from Linda Cochrane’s email to employees:

“The goal is to help open doors for work groups to integrate their work and share expertise. It is based on the One City principle and we believe it will further stimulate our cultural effort.”

Most citizens don’t think about the City in terms of the silos that have long-existed. But thinking about planning things vs. operating them is a pretty easy distinction to make. By bringing that citizen-oriented perspective to the City’s internal structure, there’s a good opportunity to integrate the work of the City to really have a positive impact.

This won’t be easy. Just because a bunch of branches have moved into a new department that has the word “integrated” in its title doesn’t mean that magically everyone is going to start working together effectively. The leadership there has a difficult task ahead to break down barriers and really encourage that integration to happen.

A cultural fit

The City has been undergoing a cultural transformation since at least 2007. Over the years this effort has taken on different names, including “Transforming Edmonton Through Organizational Excellence”, and “Transforming Edmonton and Me” (TEAM). Currently known as “Building a Great City”, the City’s internal cultural strategy focuses on five outcomes:

Our Employees are Engaged
We Have Effective Leadership
We are a High Performance Organization
Our Workplaces are Collaborative
Our Work Focuses on Citizens

It’s the last two that this reorganization seems most aligned with. The strategy notes that “there are many excellent examples of collaborative success in our organization” and that building upon those will be critical for achieving business objectives “in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.” It also highlights the public sector trend toward “citizen-centered services redesigned around the needs of the end user.”

Communications & Public Engagement

I think the other big takeaway is that Communications & Public Engagement has been elevated to its own department. It’s a major change for the organization. I think it makes a lot of sense for Customer Information Services (which contains 311) to be part of the same department as Communications and the Office of Public Engagement (formerly part of the Office of the City Manager). It’s about listening to citizens and talking with them just as much as it is about telling them what the City is up to.

Gary Klassen, Adam Laughlin, Rob Smyth, Linda Cochrane, Dorian Wandzura (some of the members of CLT)

The Office of Public Engagement is quite small at the moment, with only a handful of staff, so resourcing it effectively will be a challenge. The good news is that improving public engagement has the full support of both City Council and Administration. The Council Initiative on Public Engagement has been underway since 2014 and just began Phase 2 a few months ago. Over the next year and a half, citizens will come together with Council, Administration, and other partners to improve public engagement in Edmonton.

And the timing for this could not be better, with the full service review later this year, a municipal election coming in 2017, and a more complete review of the City’s vision and strategic plan commencing in the next couple of years as well. Effectively engaging the public will be important for all of these initiatives and more.

A look ahead at 2016 for City Council and the City of Edmonton

This year is going to be a difficult one. “While technically it won’t be a recession, for many people it’s going to feel like one,” said City of Edmonton chief economist John Rose. Our economy is expected to grow by just 1% with unemployment rising, perhaps as high as 7%. We’re less energy-dependent than the rest of the Province, but low oil prices are still going to hurt many.

Angles on Clouds, photo by Dave Sutherland

While the economy seems certain to dominate the headlines this year, there are plenty of other topics that will come up throughout the year. Here are some key things that City Council and the City of Edmonton are going to have to deal with in 2016 that we should keep an eye on:

New City Manager

With the firing of City Manager Simon Farbrother back in September, City Council will need to select a replacement this year.

I think this will be the single most impactful decision that Council will make in 2016 – who is the right person to lead the City in the years ahead? Council has already indicated they are looking for someone who is more involved in the day-to-day, “someone who can meet the aspirations of this city head-on.” The job posting further specifies that the successful candidate will be “a community-minded relationship builder and a consummate communicator who can advance an effective culture through accountability and ingenuity.” I think interim City Manager Linda Cochrane is doing a fine job, and she certainly has the knowledge, experience, abilities, and relationships that are critical to succeed in the role. But I don’t think Council will go with an insider. I think they’re looking for a fresh perspective.

A new City Manager will no doubt want to make changes to the organization, so expect more dominoes to fall this year.

Ward 12 By-Election

With Amarjeet Sohi being elected as MP for Edmonton-Mill Woods in October’s federal election, residents in Ward 12 are currently without a representative on Council. The by-election to fill his seat will take place on Monday, February 22 and there are already 29 declared candidates. That’s an incredible number of candidates, and it means voters in Ward 12 are going to have quite a difficult job deciding who should succeed Sohi. During the 2013 municipal election, Amarjeet Sohi raised more than $130,000 and spent more than $85,000 to win his seat. On average, the winning councillors spent $73,000. I don’t think we’ll see sums that large this time, however.

This is City Council’s first by-election in more than two decades. The new Councillor will need to get up-to-speed quickly, and won’t have much time to have an impact before we find ourselves in another municipal election.

With Amarjeet Sohi being named Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, I think Edmonton is very well-represented in the current federal government. Furthermore, we have a minister responsible for infrastructure in this country who knows first-hand the challenges faced by big cities like Edmonton. That bodes well for our city’s relationship with the federal government and for our interests.

LRT (Metro Line, Valley Line, Future Expansion) & Transit Strategy

Last year was not a great year for LRT in Edmonton, so I’m sure the City and Council will be hoping for a much-more train-friendly 2016.

The Metro Line LRT still has issues, of course. The City still hasn’t accepted the safety certification of Thales, and the line continues to run more slowly than planned (and seems to break down awfully frequently). The City says it wants to reach “Plan A”, which would be full operation using the computer-based train control system, but is currently at “Plan B-” (seriously? this is Plan C guys), which is reduced speeds and “line of sight” operations. The middle step, “Plan B”, is full speeds but using the new system only between Churchill and NAIT. It seems there’s still a long way to go.

Brad Smid, who “managed the planning, design and construction of the $700 Million Metro Line Stage 1 (North LRT Extension) from Downtown to NAIT” was just this month named Director of the Valley Line LRT Design & Construction. That could be good or bad, depending on your point-of-view. Some argue that Smid is a very capable manager who spotted issues with the Metro Line LRT early on and was instrumental in getting the project constructed under budget. But he didn’t do himself any favors this summer when he downplayed the issues with the Metro Line LRT. Saying that the project was completed “on time and on budget” from a design & construction point-of-view doesn’t mean much to taxpayers who ultimately ended up with less than they were promised. Maybe Smid is the right guy to lead the Valley Line LRT project, but he’ll have to earn the trust of Council and the public.

On the Valley Line LRT, things are looking better though. The City selected TransEd Partners late last year to design, build, operate, maintain, and finance the first stage of the project. The first task in 2016 will be to finalize the contract, which is expected to be complete in February. Construction will begin shortly thereafter (preparations have already been underway, of course). We’re promised that this line will be different, because it’s a P3. We’ll see about that.

A couple of reports on future LRT expansion were postponed from 2015 to this year, so we should see Council consider a long term funding plan for the LRT, a communications plan on LRT funding, and an “interdepartmental approach” for investing in transit and LRT, among other things. There’s also the ongoing work to create a new Transit Strategy that kicked off over the summer. The strategy won’t be complete until early 2017, but the bulk of the work will take place this year, and is an opportunity for Edmontonians to provide input on “how transit can best support the city we want to live in ten years from now.”

City Charter, MGA Review, Edmonton Region

Discussions about the City Charter will continue this year. Mayor Iveson was careful to set expectations last month that he doesn’t anticipate a charter being in place until the end of the current Council term, but we may see elements of it move forward in the year ahead. Both Mayor Iveson and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi see the charter as a critical step forward for Alberta’s big cities, bringing fewer restrictions, a new relationship with the Province, and long-term sustainable funding.

Also ongoing this year is the effort to modernize the Municipal Government Act (MGA), the legislation that guides how municipalities in Alberta operate. The MGA review began in 2014 and made progress last year with Bill 20 being approved by the Legislature. Additional changes will now be considered, with a goal of competing everything in time for the next municipal election in 2017. The City of Edmonton has put forward some key principles and considerations that it would like to see reflected in the new MGA. I expect a new set of recommendations will come to Council for approval this year.

Council will also need to continue pushing ahead with its regional partners. The focus for the Capital Region Board this year is to finalize its Growth Plan 2.0. It is a 30-year strategy for managing growth in the region that was originally developed in 2010 and is now getting its first major update. The current plan is for the CRB to approve the final plan in September so that it can be submitted to the Province in October (roughly a year behind schedule). Also, while a decision likely won’t be made this year, the City’s annexation plans will continue to be a focal point for regional discussion.

Last year saw the launch of the Metro Mayors Alliance and “a blue ribbon panel on improving the competitiveness of the Edmonton Metro region.” I expect we’ll hear much more from that group in 2016.

Northlands & Rexall Place

Back in April, the Northlands Arena Strategy Committee (which I was a member of) released its final report and recommendations, which were accepted by the Northlands Board in May. Since then, Northlands has been hard at work on completing its Strategic Plan. That work is now complete, and it will be presented to Council in the next month or two. A report on enhancing the Coliseum LRT Station and perhaps building a pedway to the Edmonton Expo Centre was put on hold in 2015 while Northlands worked to sort out its strategy, so that could all come up this year too.

Some aspects of the plan have already begun to leak out, including repurposing the entire 160 acres of land, the oft-discussed possibility of joining Northlands and EEDC, and perhaps even the end of horse racing at Northlands Park. I understand we’ll also learn more about a potential agreement between Northlands and the Oilers Entertainment Group (outright competition would be detrimental to both).

This could prove to be one of the most difficult issues for Council in 2016. The fallout of previous decisions – to build Rogers Place, to keep Northlands out of the discussion about the new arena, to build the expensive Edmonton Expo Centre – all of that will need to be dealt with this year. In a worst case scenario, Northlands goes away and the City is left with debt and expensive, problematic assets on its hands. In a best case scenario, a new vision for that area of the city is agreed upon and led by Northlands. Either way, the City is going to have to contibute taxpayer dollars, so Council will need to determine how it wants to spend its limited money.

Blatchford

Blatchford is a long-term project, but this will be a critical year for the development of the future community. Late last year Council decided to cut the large lake from the vision, the latest in a number of features that have been cancelled. On the plus side for Blatchford, the cost of environmental remediation has been far lower than anticipated.

A report is expected in the first quarter addressing the District Energy Sharing System that has been proposed for Blatchford. Administration will be preparing “a comprehensive business case” for the implementation of such a system, plus a “detailed rate setting analysis”. Council will need to determine if the district energy system is critical or if it too will be cut. There are some other big decisions coming up as well, so it should be an interesting year.

The City is still planning to sell fully serviced lots at Blatchford to builders this year, if all goes well.

Walterdale Bridge, 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road

Both the Walterdale Bridge and the 102 Avenue Bridge experienced major setbacks in 2015.

The $155 million Walterdale Bridge remains on budget according to the City, even with the year-long delay. The completed bridge will span 206 metres and will be 54 metres tall. All of the arch steel is now on site, the heaviest piece of which weighs 125 tonnes. The current plan is for the new bridge to open by the end of the year, with the old bridge slated to be removed in 2017.

The best date we have for the completion of the new 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road is “fall 2016” but for a project that has already faced a number of delays, that’s not very reassuring. The installation of steel girders in March was a disaster, with three of them buckling (#girdergate). It was determined that “the spacing braces failed upon crane release of the second last girder, resulting in the buckling of three girders.” They were repaired off-site and have since been reinstalled.

The City can’t afford anymore delays with these two important projects. Apparently a new integrated infrastructure services department has been created to try to avoid issues like the ones faced by the bridge projects. Let’s hope it helps and that they’re completed successfully this year.

Affordable Housing

This is an issue that Mayor Iveson has made clear on numerous occasions he’d like to make progress on. But as he wrote back in December, while “City Council remains strongly committed to supporting affordable housing projects in Edmonton” they believe funding needs to come from other orders of government. “There has to be a better way, one that is fairer to city taxpayers,” the mayor said.

Affordable housing was most recently discussed by Council at the October 27 Executive Committee Meeting. In addition to having Mayor Iveson approach the other orders of government to help advance the Londonderry Regeneration Project, Council asked for a report to come back in April outlining “how a Community Development Corporation could be established” and to address “the role of current housing provides in the Edmonton Metro and the possibility for better integrating and coordinating their work.” Council is also expecting a report to come back in March addressing affordable housing at Blatchford.

Municipal Development Corporation

Over the last year or so Council has been investigating the creation of an arms-length development company. The idea is that a Municipal Development Corporation (MDC) could be used for city building and could even pay a dividend to the City. UDI Edmonton sent a letter to Council back in June offering support for Council’s desire to develop City-owned land assets more efficiently, but expressing “serious concerns” with doing so through an MDC. They don’t want to compete against the City, understandably.

Despite that opposition, Council seems keen to move forward. They approved a motion at the November 26 Executive Committee meeting to have Administration return with a report on April 12 that outlines how to get a Municipal Development Corporation up and running with the preferred “super light” model, and that includes identifying which lands “would be more suitable for primarily profit-motivated development” that the MDC could activate.

An alternative to creating an MDC could be to establish an advisory board made up of existing developers, but I think they’re likely going to go ahead with the corporation this year.

Infill

Last year wasn’t a great year for infill. We’re nowhere close to meeting the 25% target for infill development, and there was a lot of frustration shared by communities as some projects started to move ahead. Still, Council and the City have committed to infill as a critical component of building a sustainable city, so they need to find a way to keep it moving forward.

Infill was most recently discussed at the October 5/6/7 Executive Committee meeting. Council is expecting a report by March that addresses how to deal with infill sites in mature neighbourhoods. Among other things, Council is looking for “options to create an integrated inspection and enforcement team” and “options to implement a performance bond/letter of credit and/or liability insurance, and/or warranty programs to provide security for the adjacent City and private property.” Hopefully some of those options will provide a way past the negative headlines that seemed to dominate the last year.

Following that meeting, Mayor Iveson wrote that infill “is about creating more housing options for Edmontonians and their families, which is important for the social sustainability of our community over the short and long term.” He promised to “assist the communities where this important development will occur.”

Edmonton’s Infill Roadmap identified 23 actions, and roughly half of those have been completed so far. The remaining actions will be completed this year, but it’s not quite clear what will come next. The Mature Neighbourhood Reinvestment Report is to be released in the spring with numbers on the infill taking place around the city.

The Quarters, Rossdale

The Quarters project suffered a setback in 2015 when the deal between the City and BCM Homes to develop a 28-storey residential tower at Five Corners fell through. I went by the giant hole in the ground the other day and discovered it has become home to dozens of pigeons. Apparently just one interested party came forward to look at taking over the site, but no announcements have been made yet. With $56 million in infrastructure upgrades and new construction going into The Quarters, the City desperately needs private partners to come on board to help build out the area. Not to mention the City’s first CRL project at Fort Road has not been very successful, and it would be a shame to see The Quarters follow in its footsteps.

In December, Council voted to sell some land in West Rossdale to the Province for $13 million. Mayor Iveson said there will be plenty of discussion about the impact of this decision on the West Rossdale project in the year ahead. “I think we have signalled an intent we want to work with them and just want to work out some of the details,” he said. The West Rossdale Urban Design Plan was first approved in 2011, so it would be great to see some progress in the year head.

Uber, Taxis, Bike Lanes

After a year of illegal operation and some very heated debates, we should finally get a resolution on the Uber issue in 2016. Proposed changes to the Vehicle for Hire Bylaw were discussed by Council in November, but they deferred a decision until later this month. I remain a fan and happy Uber customer, and I have no doubt that Council will provide a way for Uber to operate legally in Edmonton and I’m confident they will remain here.

The other aspect of the Uber debate is what to do with taxis, if anything. Back in March Council asked for an independent study on Edmonton’s taxi service levels, and that is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2016. The taxi companies won’t be happy about Uber, but additional changes could be on the way for their operations too.

The other contentious transportation issue that Council will need to deal with this year is bike lanes. They voted over the summer to remove bike lanes on both 95 Avenue and 40 Avenue, with an argument that doing so would pave the way for better bike infrastructure going forward. Well, now they need to prove that. As Mayor Iveson wrote in July, “Council’s statements about implementing the next generation of spaces must be quickly followed with action.”

New Civic Tower

Rogers Place isn’t the only major downtown project expected to open this year. The City of Edmonton’s new office tower is also slated wrap up construction later this year. Featuring 29 storeys the tower will stand 129.8 m tall, putting it in the top five (until the other towers in the arena district are built). The City has signed a 20 year lease for roughly 60% of the tower and has an option on naming rights too. The currently approved name is simply “Edmonton Tower”.

Council will remain at City Hall of course, but the new tower will no doubt have a large positive impact on the culture of the City, putting thousands of colleagues under one roof for the first time. With two-thirds of the City’s downtown employees moving to the tower, it will also have a potentially negative impact on other downtown buildings, creating a lot of vacant space very quickly. The City of Edmonton’s leases at the CN Tower, HSBC Building, and Scotia Place all expire in March.

And that’s just scratching the surface

There’s no shortage of issues for Council to consider throughout the year, as the list above demonstrates. But those are just the big items. Some of the other issues that will come up this year include:

Proposed changes to the Public Hearing process
An update on efforts to protect & preserve the McDougall United Church
An update on the City’s Image, Brand and Reputation Strategy
Managing the availability of Park & Ride facilities and a Gorman Park & Ride Strategy
Options for Alley Rehabilitation and Renewal
An update on the Traffic Management Pilot in Prince Charles and Pleasantview
An Electrical Bus Pilot
EFCL’s 100th Anniversary Project
The proposed Lewis Farms Recreation Centre
Funding for the Milner Library Renewal & Upgrades
An update on the Urban Beekeeping Program
An update on the Urban Hens Pilot Project
Plenty of Zoning Bylaw Changes (including reduced parking requirements in three pilot areas and around eating & drinking establishments)
An update on the proposed Galleria project
The 2016 Municipal Census

This is going to be a busy, difficult year. Get ready!

Dominoes are falling at the City of Edmonton

There’s a lot change taking place at the City of Edmonton right now and you should expect it to continue until well into next year. You might say the dominoes have started falling and no one knows when the final one will land. There are both internal and external causes for this change. Before we get into the changes, let’s consider some context.

Photo by mckinney75402

Certainly the new Provincial and Federal governments have had an impact, both directly and indirectly. By directly I mean that the City has lost some key individuals. For instance, former City Clerk Alayne Sinclair left earlier this year to work in Premier Notley’s office, and of course former Councillor Amarjeet Sohi was just named to Prime Minister Trudeau’s cabinet. And by indirectly, there’s the uncertainty about funding and working relationships that always comes with new faces. At the Provincial level, the review of the Municipal Government Act and the ongoing discussions about the Big City Charter will also have an impact depending on the outcome.

As a result of the last municipal election, both Council and Administration identified public engagement as a key challenge area of focus. Council launched the Public Engagement Initiative while Administration launched the Open City Initiative. Now with the release of the Phase 1 report back in September, work is underway to establish an Advisory Committee and working groups organized around the five strategic areas of focus. That work is expected to last through the remainder of the current Council term.

I think another big factor to consider is The Way Ahead, the City’s strategic plan. That document, which was approved in 2009, was just reviewed and updated last year, but planning will soon be underway for a more thorough overhaul leading up to 2018 (though we need to ensure we do and not just plan). How public engagement and the municipal election in 2017 factor into that work is still an open question. And at some point, the new City of Edmonton office tower will be completed allowing staff to consolidate at a single location, which could have big cultural impacts.

Top of mind at the moment is the Operating Budget. Instead of an annual budget as in years past, the City has switched to a multi-year budget, and that’s having all kinds of knock-on effects. It should mean less effort is required each year to prepare the budget, but it also means that Council can be more strategic about spending.

And of course the City’s missteps have been well-documented this year. Major projects like the 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road and the new Walterdale Bridge have been significantly delayed, and the Metro Line LRT was perhaps the key catalyst for much of the change that has taken place.

Simon Farbrother, photo by City of Edmonton

The most obvious change was Council’s decision to fire City Manager Simon Farbrother back in September. I must admit I was caught off-guard by the news, mainly because although Councillor Nickel called for Farbrother’s head during the Metro Line LRT discussions, he was the only one really doing so. Mayor Iveson and other Councillors suggested Nickel was grandstanding and said Farbrother had their full confidence. So the about face just a couple of weeks later was a surprise.

Linda Cochrane has been the Acting City Manager since late September. I think she’s a fantastic choice, certainly to maintain some stability throughout this uncertain time. But I don’t think it’s likely she’ll get the job. Here’s what Councillor Anderson said after she was made the Acting City Manager:

“She’s certainly been a part of everything that’s happened here for a long, long time and has a way with people,” he said. “I think an excellent choice.”

Being “a part of everything that’s happened here for a long, long time” is certainly a good thing for stability, institutional knowledge, and efficiency. But it’s not necessarily what you look for when you want to change things up. And that’s what Council seems to be interested in.

As Paula Simons noted, Al Maurer was widely considered a micro-manager and perhaps had too much control over the operations of the City. In contrast, Simon Farbrother brought more hands-off approach and focused on communication and culture. The assumption now is that the right person for the job can straddle the fence, able to get into the details and also able to articulate and connect the work to the big picture.

It’s clear that Council, led by Mayor Iveson, wants to go in a different direction:

“The scale and complexity of the challenges ahead demand a fresh perspective,” Iveson said. “This is about setting our administration on a new path to manage the next chapter in the city’s growth.”

Whoever the successful candidate is, it’s very likely they’ll want to make some big changes. That could mean even more turnover in senior staff than we have already begun to see.

Scott Mackie, who was in charge of Current Planning under Sustainable Development, tendered his resignation a couple weeks ago and will leave the City on November 13. I understand that Peter Ohm has been tapped to take his place. That’s a big branch, responsible for some of the most contentious issues that the City has dealt with this year.

Changes in transportation continue, with Eddie Robar joining the City from Halifax to lead ETS, filling the role that has been vacant since Charles Stolte was let go earlier this year. Robar will start on January 4. He’s very likely to shake things up upon arrival, bringing his experience overhauling Halifax’s transit system to the ongoing debate about our own.

And the biggest change could still be coming. Yesterday, Council voted to have Administration outline steps for a full program review. Mayor Iveson repeated a phrase he has used many times before, saying that setting targets for cuts is “the old ‘pin the tail on the budget'” and that the review should be focused on efficiency instead.

“Of the give or take 87 different things that we do at the city of Edmonton, there may be some that we should either stop doing or do less of versus other priorities,” said Iveson in support of the review. “Budget is not the best way to make those decisions and yet it is the default by which we make those decisions.”

The full program review is likely welcome news for some, like the Canadian Federation for Independent Business, which called current spending “unreasonable” and said property taxes have “ballooned”.

The last major review took place in 1997. Bruce Thom, who joined the City of Edmonton as City Manager in 1996, wasted no time in making changes. One of the first things he did was spend $500,000 to have Ernst & Young evaluate the City’s operations. That resulted in City ’97 (subtitled “Preparing for the Future”), a plan to save $52 million per year by the year 2000, principally by eliminating roughly 750 of the City’s 8,700 jobs. In the end about 400 positions were eliminated and the City reorganized from thirteen departments to just eight, resulting in a savings of roughly $22.5 million annually between 1997 and 2000.

It was a stressful time for City bureaucrats, and Council raised that as a concern with conducting another review now. They cited the importance of a clear communications plan and downplayed the idea that the review is being undertaken solely to find opportunities for job cuts.

full time positions

Though Simon Farbrother led a relatively minor reorganization in 2011, the City’s workforce has generally been growing in recent years. Prior to City ’97, the last major round of layoffs took place in 1983. At the time the City had about 11,000 employees, a number the City surpassed once again in 2012.

I think a review of the City’s operations makes sense, and perhaps the timing is right. With a new City Manager coming in, the possibility of a new relationship with the Provincial and Federal governments (especially with the City Charter), and a new round of strategic planning coming up, it’s entirely appropriate for Council and Administration to get aligned on priorities.

Expect much more change to come!

Coming up at City Council: February 9-13, 2015

Agendas for upcoming City Council meetings are generally released on Thursday afternoons. I like to take a look to see what Council will be discussing, and I figured I should share that here. Below you’ll find links to the meetings taking place next week, as well as links to and thoughts on some agenda items that caught my eye.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Council starts the week with a Public Hearing scheduled to take place from 1:30pm until 9:30pm. There are 20 bylaws listed on the agenda – here are a few that caught my eye:

Duncan Innes Park becomes official

Bylaw 17059 and Bylaw 17069 will be considered together, and aim to designate Duncan Innes Park as a Municipal Reserve, which “formalizes its status as a park and offers protection against disposal and incompatible uses.” The park is located in the eastern half of the King Edward Park neighbourhood. The second bylaw is to rezone the park from RF3 to AP.

Bylaw 17062 – Text Amendment to Zoning Bylaw 12800

This bylaw is related to a larger project that is reviewing how the zoning bylaw regulates height and grade in the city. This particular bylaw is intended to “reduce delays in permitting walkout basement developments” and updates definitions and regulations pertaining to height. In addition to other changes, the amendment adds a new method for calculating grade, and removes the distinction between roof pitches steeper than or less steep than 20 degrees, which is “no longer a relevant determinant.”

Closures for The Armature along 96 Street

Bylaws 17054 – 17058 are all for closing portions of 96 Street, from Jasper Avenue to 103A Avenue, to facilitate the development of The Armature, a key feature of The Quarters Redevelopment. The Armature is meant to link The Quarters with the river valley, and will accommodate walking, cycling, public transportation, and private vehicles, but with higher priority given to pedestrians and cyclists.

Bylaw 17011 – The Decoteau ASP

This was supposed to be discussed at the January 26 public hearing but was rescheduled. The bylaw is ready for first and second reading, and must go to the Capital Region Board for review before third reading. This item is slated to be discussed at 2pm. You can read my previous post about this here.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

On Tuesday Council will be holding a regular Council meeting. There are eight reports and five bylaws on the agenda. Council will also receive a verbal update from Administration on the Commonwealth Games bid, and Councillor Henderson has a motion pending on the planned elimination of the use of herbicides on City of Edmonton public lands.

Reports

There are three new reports:

2015 Northlands Capital Budget

The Master Agreement between the City and Northlands requires Northlands to submit each annual budget to the City within 30 days of being approved by the Board. It also enables City Council to object if Northlands plans to spend more than $250,000 on any single new construction project in a given year, or if they plan to spend more than $750,000 on repairs or alterations to an existing facility. Neither of those thresholds have been triggered by the 2015 capital budget.

Northlands plans to spend a total of $3.8 million in 2015 on capital projects, including $1.1 million at Northlands Park and nearly $900,000 on technology. Some of the interesting items:

$30,000 for a Food Hub Facility
$100,000 for a Northlands Food Truck
$71,040 for new office chairs (really?!)
$45,910 for Urban Farm Phase II

Update on the Edmonton Arena District

The last update was provided on September 23, 2014 and this latest update reaffirms that Rogers Place “continues to progress on schedule and within the approved budgets.” Excavation and foundation work is over 95% complete, and steel structure erection is 9% complete and should be done in Q3. On average there are 300 workers on-site during the day with no “time lost” accidents reported. The next quarterly meeting of the Arena Community Benefits Advisory Committee is slated to take place on February 9.

All Eyes on the Big Build! by Jeff Wallace

Local and Composite Assessment Review Board Assignments

Council has appointed 17 members to serve on Local and Composite Assessment Review Boards, and they must now be assigned as required by the Municipal Government Act. The purpose of these boards (there are three types) is to hear 2015 assessment (tax) complaints.

Committee Reports

There are five committee reports that include recommendations for Council:

The LRT Governance Board’s Semi-Annual Report is being received for information.
Executive Committee recommended that Council designate the Cameron Block as a Municipal Historic Resource.
A report on using the Building Canada Fund for improvements to Yellowhead Trail was referred to Council without a recommendation from Committee, but with Administration’s recommendation and one amendment.
Also referred to Council by Executive Committee without a recommendation is the Policy to Address Construction Hoardings Standards.
Finally, the Transportation Committee recommended that the expropriation process for land needed for the Valley Line LRT be approved.

Bylaws

There are 5 bylaws that Council will consider:

Bylaw 17089 – for decorative street lights in Laurier Heights
Bylaw 17073 – for a special tax to repair and maintain alley lighting
Bylaw 17002 – Accessibility Advisory Committee
Bylaw 17004 – Amendment to the Public Places Bylaw (to ban smoking in Churchill Square)
Bylaw 17031 – Amendment to the Community Standards Bylaw (backyard fire pit control)

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The first Audit Committee meeting of 2015 will take place on Wednesday afternoon. Here are the audits for which results are now available:

Other

An audit of the Neighbourhood Renewal Program is going to be added to the City Auditor’s Work Plan for 2015
An External Quality Assessment Review will be conducted this year, the first since 2011

Wrap-up

You can keep track of City Council on Twitter using the #yegcc hashtag, and you can listen to or watch any Council meeting live online.

Coming up at City Council: February 2-6, 2015

It’s Committee week!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Council starts the week with a Community Services Committee Meeting scheduled to take place from 9:30am until 5:30pm. There are three reports on the agenda, all of which require approval by Council.

Accessibility Advisory Committee

This report is for bylaw 17002 which will replace bylaw 13194 and change the name from the Advisory Board on Services for Persons with Disabilities to the Accessibility Advisory Committee (because committees are advisory in nature). Apparently a survey of other municipalities found that 70% use the name “Accessibility Advisory Committee”. It also follows the new standard for establishing bylaws of this nature, and would allow the Chair to participate in the shortlisting process for recruiting new members.

Amendment to the Public Places Bylaw

This bylaw is all about the decision to prohibit smoking in Churchill Square. Bylaw 17004 is ready for three readings and enables the City Manager to designate certain outdoor spaces as no smoking areas. What’s interesting is that Administration through the City Manager will now have the power to designate any area as a no smoking area, not just Churchill Square. If the three readings pass, the bylaw would come into effect on April 15, 2015.

Amendment to the Community Standards Bylaw for Backyard Fire Pit Control

This amendment, bylaw 17031, would prohibit outdoor fires during air quality advisories. The fine for violation will be $250, increasing to $500 for subsequent offences. Less than ten violation tickets were issued in 2014 for outdoor fire offences.

Delayed Reports

Three reports have been rescheduled for future meetings:

Fire Pit Enforcement Options – March 23, 2015
EPS: Policing Expenditures for Non-Residents – March 23, 2015
Options for prohibiting smoking at all outdoor City-owned facilities – April 20, 2015

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Council will hold its next Executive Committee Meeting on Tuesday, scheduled to run from 9:30am until 5:30pm. There are nine reports on the agenda, three of which require Council approval. Here are some agenda items that I was particularly interested in:

Policy on Construction Hoarding Standards

I have been concerned about construction hoarding, especially throughout downtown, for a while now. As a pedestrian, the current approach could be described as lacking, at best. Council has heard the concern and complaints from the community and a new policy on construction hoarding has bee proposed.

“Urban densification and a vibrant public realm are key elements to increasing the livability and sustainability of our city. As the city grows, it is crucial to maintain and improve the walkability and vibrancy of the public realm without hindering development in areas best suited for densification. The City of Edmonton promotes the use of construction hoardings that balance the interests of all parties in order to achieve pedestrian safety, transportation mode equity, vibrant streetscapes and community.”

This is a great step forward. The City will develop a template for hoarding agreements and set of standard clauses. They are reviewing the Safety Codes Permit bylaw and other applicable bylaws and will make recommended amendments as appropriate.

Most importantly, the importance of the pedestrian appears to have been realized:

“A review of Edmonton’s current hoarding fees revealed that the amount charged for the
occupation of road is nearly four times more per square metre than for sidewalk. This creates an incentive to keep the road clear while occupying the sidewalk. Administration is working to change fees to reflect the importance of sidewalks in high pedestrian areas and acknowledge the City’s commitment to encourage active transportation.”

Incentives for public art are also being explored, which could make hoarding much more attractive. On top of that, improvements for public notification about road and sidewalk closures have been requested and will be considered.

This is really great news!

Direct Control Zoning for the Protection of Historic Character

Back in November, Council asked for a report on areas that may be suitable for DC zoning to protect historic character. The report outlines some definitions for heritage districts and the criteria used to identify heritage properties and character areas. These are typically 50 years or older. Edmonton currently has seven identified heritage character areas:

Westmount Architectural Heritage Area (1997)
Strathcona Historical Commercial Area (1998)
Historic West Ritchie Area (2011)
Garneau Special Character Residential Area (1982)
Viewpoint Special Character Area (1982)
Oliver Special Character Area (1997)
The Brickyard at Riverdale (2001)

Additional potential heritage character areas have been identified in McCauley, Alberta Avenue, Westmount, Inglewood, Glenora, Jasper Place, and Beverly Heights.

Edmonton’s heritage program was established in 1981 “in response to the loss of a number of key historic resources in Downtown.”

Building Canada Fund Projects

This report outlines the projects that could be submitted to the federal government under the new Building Canada Fund. The National Infrastructure and the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure components of the fund provide a combined $14 billion for projects, with a variety of rules and restrictions that much be followed.

Yellowhead Trail by Brittney Le Blanc

The proposal is for Yellowhead Trail Improvements (Stages 1-5) to be our city’s priority under the National Infrastructure component. Five projects would be designated under the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure component: LRT Expansion, Key Grade Saparations (50 Street and 75 Street underpasses, Manning/Meridian Interchange), Neighborhood Flood Mitigation Program, Fort Edmonton Park Utility Infrastructure Upgrades, Edmonton Energy and Technology Park.

The City’s portion of those projects would be funded using tax-support debt. Land acquisition is not eligible for funding under the Building Canada Fund, and that is expected to make up more than $200 million of the Yellowhead Trail project costs, so that’s a concern.

TOD on the Coliseum LRT Station and Northlands Site

This report is an update on plans for transit oriented development around Coliseum LRT Station. The high level update is that plans are on hold until the Northlands Arena Strategy Committee (which I am a member of) makes it recommendation on the future of Rexall Place and until the Northlands Board of Directors completes its Strategic Planning Process. The City is meeting regularly with Northlands and have agreed to “evolve a partnership relationship and to enhance communication and collaboration.”

Other

The first item of business is an update on consultation held with Belgravia and McKernan communities to “clarify understanding of policy related to potential rezonings” from RF1 to RF3 to facilitate small scale neighbourhood infill within 400 metres of the McKernan/Belgravia LRT Station.
Council will be voting on a recommendation to designate the Cameron Block located at 10543 97 Street as a Municipal Historic Resource, and to provide about $170,000 in funding for the project.
One report provides an update on the effects of amendments to the Zoning Bylaw for Major and Minor Alcohol Sales Uses. Liquor stores cannot be within 500 metres of one another, but when that regulation came into effect in 2007, many existing stores became legally non-conforming.
An update on the “Finding Common Ground” research project that began back in January 2013 will be discussed. The goal is to “find ways to address the root causes for conflict” in non-market housing developments.

Delayed Reports

Two reports have been rescheduled for future meetings:

Possible Amendments to Procedures & Committees Bylaw 12300 – February 24, 2015
Public Hearing Process (Henderson/McKeen) – April 21, 2015

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The final meeting of the week will be the Transportation Committee Meeting on Wednesday from 9:30am until 5:30pm. Here are the four reports that will be discussed:

Raising Awareness for High Collision Areas

This report follows on from a request made back in November to explore how to raise awareness of high collision locations. It summarizes six measures that may increase driver awareness of those locations:

Static Roadside Signs
Dynamic Roadside Signs
Pavement Markings
Intersection Safety Devices (cameras)
Improve Signal Visible Measures
Public Engagement and Communications

The report says that static roadside signs “have been shown to have minimal effectiveness on collision reduction.” The City is proposing to update the signs to include more information on what action needs to be taken (slow down, exert caution when merging, etc.). Dynamic roadside signs are like digital message boards or signs that show a driver’s speed. The report says that for speed limit compliance, “Driver Feedback Signs are effective as a speed management tool.”

high collision sign

Pavement markings can be effective, but less so in Edmonton where the roads are covered in snow for so much of the year. Apparently cameras at intersections “showed significant reductions” in collision severities and types. The report says the best way to improve signal visibility is to put it overhead, a measure which “can reduce collisions by 30 to 35 percent.” Finally, the report says public engagement campaigns can be effective, such as a program that resulted in a 15 percent reduction of red-light running vehicles.

Expropriation of Lands for the Valley Line LRT

Council approval is required to begin the expropriation process, so I expect the Committee to make that recommendation as a result of this item. By starting the process, the City will be able to negotiate with property owners to reach a settlement or a Section 30 Agreement (which allows the Land Compensation Board to determine the compensation when a settlement between the two parties cannot be reached).

The required expropriations and temporary and permanent construction easements for this stage are all the land around Mill Woods Town Centre (Lot 3, Block 6, Plan 0022000).

Open Tenders of $20 million or greater

Bylaw 12005 requires that open tenders greater than $20 million require Committee approval. This report highlights one tender, number 927871, which is for “Dust-free Mechanical Street Sweeping and Related Services”. The value of the project is between $30 million and $50 million.

Eliminating Railway Whistling at Public Crossings

Back in November, Councillor Esslinger asked for information about how to eliminate railway whistling at public crossings in the densely populated areas of north Edmonton, particularly late at night. The report says that train whistling is required under Transport Canada’s operating rules, but that an exemption could be sought if the City and CN worked together to apply for one. It would require a “whistling cessation study” to be completed at an approximate cost of $50,000 per location. Depending on the outcome of the study, crossing upgrades would likely be added on top of that cost. There is currently no budget allocated for any of this.

Delayed Reports

Eight reports have been rescheduled for future meetings:

Escalators at LRT Stations (Walters/Iveson) – February 25, 2015
Traffic Noise from the Anthony Henday (Oshry) – February 25, 2015
Low Income Transit Pass Pilot – April 22, 2015
Public Involvement Plan – Barriers to Participation – May 6, 2015
Community Traffic Management Plan Pilot (Prince Charles & Pleasantview) – May 6, 2015
Community Traffic Management Process Possible Changes – May 6, 2015
Opportunities for Commercial Development in Future LRT/Transit Infrastructure – June 17, 2015
Bike Lane Removal (Nickel) – June 17, 2015

Wrap-up

It’s not up yet, but I expect an overview of everything that happened this week to be on the Mayor’s Week in Review Blog soon.

You can keep track of City Council on Twitter using the #yegcc hashtag, and you can listen to or watch any Council meeting live online.

Coming up at City Council: January 26-30, 2015

For an overview of everything that happened this week, check out the Mayor’s Week in Review Blog.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Council starts the week with a Public Hearing scheduled to take place from 1:30pm until 9:30pm. There are 27 bylaws listed on the agenda – here are a few that caught my eye:

Bylaw 16733 – Text Amendment to the Zoning Bylaw

This bylaw is ready for three readings after the public hearing has been held and its purpose is to change the terminology for height regulations in the zoning bylaw. Specifically it’ll remove “storeys” as a definition for maximum height.

“The current regulations in Zoning Bylaw 12800 manage height through a numerical distance and a description of building form, but this often creates a contradiction between opportunities. For example, a building could meet the numerical height requirement but not meet the storey requirement.”

This bylaw increases the maximum height in all affected zones from 14 metres to 16 metres in response to advances in building construction methods. “For example, the (RA7) Low Rise Apartment Zone allows a four storey building in 14 metres, but it is not possible to fit a four storey building within this allowance using standard grade calculation methods and typical building designs.” The bylaw also clarifies when a wind study or sun shadow study should be requested, and adds basic evaluation criteria for both.

Bylaw 17011 – Adoption of The Decoteau Area Structure Plan

This bylaw is ready for first and second reading only, which means it’ll be back to Council at least one more time. It deals with the Area Structure Plan (ASP) for the area known as Decoteau, which is south of Anthony Henday Drive, east of 50 Street SW, west of Meridian Street SW, and north of 41 Avenue SW. Really far in the southeast, basically.

Decoteau ASP

This is one of the Urban Growth Areas defined in The Way We Grow, and this ASP is the final one to be prepared and advanced to Council. An ASP describes the land uses and their general locations. The proposed Decoteau ASP is approximately 1,960 hectares and proposes a population of nearly 68,000 living in five neighbourhoods. Here’s the vision for the Decoteau ASP:

“Decoteau embraces its unique landscape to provide residents with a remarkable ecological and recreational network comprised of interconnected wetlands, parks and open spaces. It integrates residential development with retail/commercial nodes, the ecological/recreational network, a significant business employment area, and a dynamic mixed use town centre to create walkable, complete communities for all seasons. The result is a group of diverse neighbourhoods that are connected to surrounding communities yet grounded in the local landscape.”

That was developed by a stakeholder advisory group of land owners, residents, developers, the City, and special interest groups. The area is intended to develop over the next 35-40 years.

The ASP discusses revenue and expenditure expectations over a 50 year time span. It’s a projection, based on build-out in approximately 39 years with a total population of 67,816 people.

decoteau costs

As you can see, cumulative costs exceed cumulative revenues. “So as the City grows this and other residential areas, it must also grow its non-residential areas to maintain balanced growth.” It’s another neighbourhood that can only be supported in the long-run by acquiring more non-residential land, which requires more residential areas, etc. “In other words, for the City as a whole to maintain the current ratio, there needs to be approximately $5 billion of non-residential assessment for every $20 billion in residential assessment growth.”

Horse Hill ASP, NSP, and Meridian Street/Manning Drive Interchange

Bylaw 17021 includes an amendment to the Horse Hill ASP that reconfigures some of the proposed elements and would result in an increase in the net residential density from 31 to 33.4 units per net residential hectare. Bylaw 17022 is the Neighbourhood Structure Plan (NSP) for the proposed Horse Hill Neighbourhood 2, which is bounded by 195 Avenue NW to the north, the North Saskatchewan River to the east, Horsehills Creek to the south, and Manning Drive to the west. The NSP will accommodate 25,800 people in approximately 10,800 dwelling units, resulting in a density of 38.1 units per net residential hectare. Bylaw 17030 is being considered along those two, and amends the boundary of the North Saskatchewan River Valley ARP.

Bylaw 17032 is an amendment to the Arterial Roads for Development bylaw that proposes the transportation levy for Horse Hill include a contribution of funds to the interchange at Meridian Street and Manning Drive. The land is under provincial jurisdiction, but “the Province has indicated that it will not construct the interchange.”

Oliver ARP & mixed used building up to 14 storeys

Bylaw 17040 and Bylaw 17041 together proposed to amend the Oliver ARP to allow for the development of medium to high rise mixed-use development on the north side of Jasper Avenue between 121 Street and 122 Street. Currently on that site is the 121 Jasper Liquor Store, Planet Organic, and some empty lots. The second bylaw would rezone from DC1 and CB1 to CB3 which would allow for mixed-use developments up to 14 storeys in height.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

On Tuesday Council will be holding a regular Council meeting. Here is an overview of the agenda:

Reports

There are three new reports to be discussed:

One report recommends that the City of Edmonton participate in the Sturgeon River Watershed Alliance Steering Committee, with Councillor Gibbons as the representative and Councillor Knack as his alternate.
Another recommends that a facilitated session on Edmonton’s Community Energy Transition Strategy be held on March 18. The risk management strategy is “designed to protect Edmonton’s quality-of-life from climate and energy-related risks. The facilitated session would bring Council up-to-speed on the strategy and seek their direction on next steps.
The third report recommends that Councillor Oshry be appointed to the Edmonton Police Commission for the rest of the Council term.

Bylaws

There are 14 bylaws that Council will consider, including:

Bylaw 17091 – making the name change of the Chinatown Business Revitalization Zone official
Bylaw 17092 – to amend the Quarters CRL bylaw to increase borrowing authorization by $44.345 million
Bylaw 17075 – this one is like bylaw inception, amending bylaw 15156 as amended by bylaw 15978 – bottom line: it’s to increase borrowing authorization for the Great Neighbourhoods Initiative by $60 million
Bylaw 17076 & Bylaw 17077 – to undertake, construct, and finance the new Northwest Police Campus and Dispatch and Emergency Operations Centre
Bylaw 17053 – to authorize the City to lend up to $1.2 million to Waste RE-solutions Edmonton

Six of the other bylaws are to undertake, construct, and finance various Waste Management projects.

Committee Recommendations

The following recommendations have been referred to Council for a vote:

That the Mayor write to the Premier and Minister of Education to express Youth Council’s opposition to Bill 10 in its current form.
That the grant recommendations for the Cultural Diversity in the Arts program be approved.
That the Festival Seed Operating Grants be approved.
That the grant recommendations in the Edmonton Heritage Council report on Operational, Project, Seed Project, and Travel Grants be approved.
That the Community Services report on the Civic Precinct Master Plan be received for information.
That the St. Josaphat Cathedral be designated a Municipal Historic Resource and that funding of up to $500,000 for the project be approved.
That the McKay Avenue School be designated a Municipal Historic Resource and that funding of up to $300,000 for the project be approved.
That the City proceed with the startup strategy outlined to establish a municipally owned and controlled for-profit land corporation to focus on City-building initiatives in addition to earning profits.
That the Transportation Committee report on SE LRT integration with the Civic Precinct Master Plan be received for information.

Motions Pending

There are two motions pending, both from Councillor Henderson:

Private and Verbal Reports

There are six private or verbal reports listed on the agenda, which means they’re subject to FOIPP and are not made public due to sensitive information that could diminish the City’s negotiating position or ability to compete:

Settlement of an Expropriation Claim – Fort Road Widening
Settlement of an Expropriation Claim – Fort Road Old Town Redevelopment
Bargaining Update (verbal report)
City of Edmonton Nominee – Utilities Consumer Advocate Advisory Board
Municipal Development Corporation – Possible City Properties
Event Update No. 4 – Commonwealth Games (verbal report)

Wrap-up

You can keep track of City Council on Twitter using the #yegcc hashtag, and you can listen to or watch any Council meeting live online.

Coming up at City Council: January 19-23, 2015

The winter break is over and Council is getting back to business next week.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Council starts the week with a Community Services Committee meeting scheduled to take place all day.

Civic Precinct Master Plan – Addressing Current Square Design

The situation here is that back in April 2013, a number of festivals expressed concern with the proposed Civic Precinct Master Plan. The City hired a consultant as a result to work to identify changes. Festival groups had issues with being limited to 99 Street for programming, concern about safety when the LRT opens along 102 Avenue, and concern about additional trees resulting in limited movement between spaces. Businesses around the Square are “largely supportive of the principles of the Civic Precinct Master Plan” the report says. In short, the City is going to move ahead with some aspects of the plan, but focused mainly on programming, operations, and governance. Revising and advancing the entire plan is “not recommended” at the moment and will be revisited once LRT construction is complete and the new line is operational.

Edmonton Arts Council Grant Recommendations

The Edmonton Arts Council has recommended that eight projects receive funding under the Cultural Diversity in the Arts program for a total of $86,700: May Banh, William Belcourt, Sofia Cristanti, Yong Fei Guan, Todd Houseman, Erika Namsechi, Yukari Meldrum, and Elisa Marina Mair Sanchez. They have also recommended $29,500 in Festival Seed Operating Grants for 2015 for the Edmonton Latin Festival, Relish Film Festival, and Sand on Whyte.

Edmonton Heritage Council Grant Recommendations

The Edmonton Heritage Council has recommended a little over $363,000 in their Operational, Project, Seed Project, and Travel grant programs. Operational grants would be going to the Alberta Aviation Museum Association, Alberta Genealogical Society, Alberta Labour History Institute, Alberta Pioneer Railway Association, Edmonton and District Historical Society, Edmonton Radial Railway Society, Edmonton Telephone Historical Information Centre Foundation, Friends of Rutherford House Society, The Olde Towne Beverly Historical Society, and Societe historique francophone de l’Alberta. One of the most interesting projects to receive a grant recommendation is ECVO’s History of Edmonton’s Human Services Sector, to “document the history of the nonprofit human services sector in Edmonton.”

Other

Here are some of the other agenda items that caught my eye:

Council will likely approve a recommendation to have Mayor Iveson write to the Premier and Minister of Education to share the Youth Council’s strong opposition to Bill 10 in its current form. The report states that “Bill 10 will adversely affect the lives of some of Edmonton’s most vulnerable youth and undermine the principles of inclusiveness and diversity in Alberta schools.”
Canada Post is undertaking the conversion to community mailboxes in Edmonton this year. The City had asked if mail carriers might use the 311 App to report incidents and issues they observe, but Canada Post has come back and basically said no.
It doesn’t sound like big changes are underway for recognition of citizens, but the City is considering a digital museum and Wall of Fame in City Hall.

There will also be a response to an inquiry from Mayor Iveson on charitable donations to Community Leagues, but the report for that is not yet available.

A large number of reports have been rescheduled to later dates so if you were looking for those you’ll have to wait:

Support to Not-for-Profit Organizations (M. Nickel) – February 23
Entrance Signage – March 9
Status Update on the New Africa Centre Facility and Strategy for the Involvement of the African Community – March 9
Community League Collaboration – March 23
Single-use Recreation Fees – April 20
Lewis Farms Recreation Centre – Program Statement and Recreation Facility Master Plan Updates – November 9

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

On Tuesday Council will be holding its next Executive Committee meeting, also scheduled to go all day. Here are some agenda items that caught my eye:

Municipal Development Corporation Business Plan

The recommendation here is that Administration proceed with establishing a municipally owned and controlled for-profit land development corporation “to focus on City-building initiatives in addition to earning profits.” The report includes a 73 page business case for the creation of a Municipal Development Corporation (MDC) prepared by Deloitte. Benefits of an MDC include:

The MDC could act “more closely like a private company” to benefit from less constraints and capitalize on private sector expertise.
The MDC could be a catalyst to bring underutilized sites to market.
The MDC could “generate a financial return and also execute on key city-building objectives.”

The City currently has 9,355 land holdings across Edmonton, and estimates suggest nearly 200 could eventually be appropriate for the MDC, though roughly 30 would be appropriate to seed the corporation.

A list of possible properties that could be transferred to the MDC will be presented at the meeting, but is not available under sections 24 and 25 of the FOIPP act. Properties within West Rossdale and the Edmonton Research Park are possible candidates.

If Council approves the recommendation to establish the MDC, Administration will return by the end of Q2 with a more detailed business plan for Council’s consideration. The initiative could require up to $2 million in funding over the next two years for startup costs. The creation of an MDC also requires approval from the Province.

Uber & Vehicle-for-Hire Regulations

The highly anticipated report on vehicle-for-hire regulations and Uber is now available, and while it talks about the regulations and the taxi industry, it doesn’t say much about how the City is going to deal with Uber. The report notes that a 2007 study found that Edmonton should have 17 taxis per 10,000 people, but 2007 was a long time ago and there’s no updated information included. We currently have 15 taxis per 10,000 people, which means we have a shortfall of roughly 177 taxi plates.

The report does talk about some considerations with UberX, including: drivers and vehicles are unregulated, so no background checks are done; drivers with a Class 5 license cannot transport passengers for hire in Alberta; vehicles are not required to obtain a mechanical inspection on a regular basis; and, drivers can carry personal liability insurance rather than commercial insurance.

An attachment called “Options for Edmonton” outlines the following “options that the City of Edmonton could pursue to improve overall taxi services”:

Release a close number of night plates
Release night plates with no cap
Release winter plates
Release accessible taxi plates
Release regular plates
Allow for taxis and drivers from nearby jurisdictions to be licensed to travel from Edmonton to home
Encourage executive car services by reducing minimum fares, setting lower pre-booking time frame
Ride Share Services (essentially a modified shuttle service)
Open system: remove the cap on taxi license plates
City of Edmonton to develop its own app

Notably absent from that list? Any mention of updating the regulations to make services like Uber and Lyft legal! Nor is there any discussion of the benefits of services like Uber.

It should be an interesting discussion!

Ballpark Update and State of Baseball in Edmonton

Executive Committee had previously requested information about Telus Field, and this report is the result. “Baseball has been part of Edmonton’s social and sporting scene since the late 1880’s,” the report says. The Edmonton Prospects (a Western Major Baseball League team) played at Telus Field in 2013 and 2014, and are negotiating terms for their 2015 schedule. The report also includes an attachment called The State of Baseball Report, prepared by RC Strategies, which assesses “the current state of professional and high-level amateur baseball in Edmonton.”

The City owns the ballpark, which it leases to the Oilers Entertainment Group, which in turn subleases it to the Edmonton Prospects. A condition assessment was completed in 2013 and found that an investment of $1.3 million will be required over the next ten years. The report does not recommend any specific action at this time, but suggests that Administration could further explore options including the creation of a business case to make the ballpark more viable, physical changes to the ballpark, and also the implications of removing or replacing it.

River Valley Access Mechanical Lift Options

This report provides an update on the proposal to “advance the Mechanized Access and the Touch the Water Promenade projects.” Council previously approved $34.4 million for the River Valley Alliance Connective Infrastructure, $24 million of which will go to the West Rossdale Mechanized Access Project with the remainder going to the Touch the Water Promenade. Both projects are required to be completed by 2017. The City will return to Executive Committee in Q2 with another project update.

Other

A few of the other reports include:

An update on the timelines for implementation of amendments to low density residential zones as outlined in Edmonton’s Infill Roadmap.
A recommendation that Council spend $300,000 from the Heritage Reserve Fund to designate McKay Avenue School as a Municipal Historic Resource.
An update on the West Rossdale Redevelopment project related to commercial activity.
Edmonton Research Park – Revised Business Models: the facility requires $15 million in maintenance over the next five years.
The City has developed a Land Sale Strategy for Blatchford.
An update on the effort to address barriers to multi-unit family oriented development in the zoning bylaw.
A status update on the Cornerstones Inclusionary Affordable Housing project.
A response to an inquiry by Councillor Nickel on the operations of the Current Planning Reserve Fund.

Here too, a few reports were delayed:

Building Canada Fund Projects Yellowhead Trail Improvements – February 3
TOD on Coliseum LRT & Northlands – February 3
Amendments to Policy C533 – Revolving Industrial Servicing Fund – February 24
Designation, Preservation & Restoration of McDougall United Church – February 24
109 Street Corridor ARP – March 24
Recreation Lake in Blatchford – March 24
Greyhound Main Depot Site Operations – April 21

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The next Transportation Committee meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon and to run into Thursday if necessary.

Valley Line LRT & Churchill Square

There are two reports here, one that provides information on the Valley Line LRT Churchill Station structure and integration with the Civic Precinct, and one that provides information on the impacts of the Valley Line Stage 1 construction on Churchill Square and its users.

Preliminary Engineering for the Churchill Connection Structure was completed previously, and here’s an aerial rendering of what it might look like:

The successful P3 proposal is expected to be selected by the end of the year, with major construction set to begin in 2016. The Valley Line LRT Stage 1 is not expected to be complete until 2020.

It is expected that 102 Avenue will be totally closed for LRT construction starting in 2016 and lasting until the project is done in 2020. Churchill Square itself will remain open, with only temporary partial closures as necessary. Any closures will be limited to the period from October 1, 2016 to April 30, 2018 in an attempt to minimize the impact on festivals (affects just the 2017 summer festival season).

The Valley Line Public Engagement Plan implementation will include opportunities for meetings, updates, and Citizen Working Groups to discuss the construction and its impact.

Metro Line Update

This report has not been made available under FOIPP, but the item is time specific at 3pm. Let’s hope that Council hears the line is ready to open soon, rather than that another delay is necessary.

Other

There’s a response to an inquiry from Councillor Nickel on the Customer Intake Model for DATS. It outlines the current policies and procedures for booking DATS trips and provides an update on the process to determine applicants’ eligibility for the service.

Tons of reports have been delayed here:

Installation of Traffic Lights – Criteria and Process – February 25
Hotel Street Parking Access – February 25
Parking Options 66 Avenue – 88 Street – February 25
LRT Funding Strategies for Other Lines – February 25
Streetlight Pole Maintenance and Replacement Program – March 11
Potholes in Back Alleys – March 25
Edmonton Transit System Advisory Board Bylaw – April 22
Bike Lane Infrastructure Engagement Plan – May 6
North/South Connections to 83 Avenue – October 28

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 – Special Council Meeting

City Council is holding a Special meeting on Wednesday morning to get an update from Administration on public engagement. They will no doubt talk about the Building the Momentum event which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 24 at the Shaw Conference Centre. You can learn more about the Council Initiative on Public Engagement and about Open City initiative on the City website.

Wrap-up

Ah, isn’t great to have Council back in session? You can keep track of City Council on Twitter using the #yegcc hashtag, and you can listen to or watch any Council meeting live online.

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Background

Phase 1

Phase 2

Get Involved

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Why now?

It’s about integration

A cultural fit

Communications & Public Engagement

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New City Manager

Ward 12 By-Election

LRT (Metro Line, Valley Line, Future Expansion) & Transit Strategy

City Charter, MGA Review, Edmonton Region

Northlands & Rexall Place

Blatchford

Walterdale Bridge, 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road

Affordable Housing

Municipal Development Corporation

Infill

The Quarters, Rossdale

Uber, Taxis, Bike Lanes

New Civic Tower

And that’s just scratching the surface

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Monday, February 9, 2015

Duncan Innes Park becomes official

Closures for The Armature along 96 Street

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Reports

Committee Reports

Bylaws

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Other

Wrap-up

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Monday, February 2, 2015

Delayed Reports

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Other

Delayed Reports

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Delayed Reports

Wrap-up

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Monday, January 26, 2015

Horse Hill ASP, NSP, and Meridian Street/Manning Drive Interchange

Oliver ARP & mixed used building up to 14 storeys

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Reports

Bylaws

Committee Recommendations

Motions Pending

Private and Verbal Reports

Wrap-up

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Monday, January 19, 2015

Edmonton Arts Council Grant Recommendations

Other

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Other

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Valley Line LRT & Churchill Square

Metro Line Update

Other

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 – Special Council Meeting

Wrap-up

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