HawthorneVillager.com

I say if it bugs someone so much, then I expect to see their name on the municipal ballot come election time. Don't just bitch about change, make change happen. Just a thought.

or at least show up to some town council meetings where they take public input. the next planning meeting is on April 21st @ 7:30pm in the Council Chambers, Town Hall

The bridge itself has been done for a while, the rerouting of the road was delayed, but once the snow is on the ground it isn't safe, nor cost effective to build. Instead of wasting money keeping crews and equipment intermittently working through the winter, they did the fiscally responsible thing and kept construction on hold.

As for Derry / Bronte and those tracks, It will take several more years of build up before that becomes nearly as critical as Thompson. Thompson was made extra bad when 4th line was closed as both Go Station and 401 Bound traffic was driven through a single road. By the time HVE reach the same pop levels as HV they "should" have the Tremain 401 entrance built rerouting a lot of that traffic. As for the plans for a train under pass, I'm not familiar with those plans.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

Details of Thompson Road Project:

http://www.milton.ca/residents/roads/thompsonroad.htm
Completion of Thompson is targeted for "the end of 2008"

I can't say if that has been the plan all along, but that is the currently maintained site on Milton's homepage, so for end of 08 it is still "on schedule"

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

I'm not sure I agree with you on traffic volumes. Thompson not only had to support HV (which was at least up to Phase 12 built before James Snow opened) and all the existing traffic from the feeder streets that dump on to Thompson, and all the out of town down town traffic foolish enough to come in from the south east.

In comparison, the tracks at Bronte/Derry are an impediment only to those living in HVE and the development across the way. Those heading for the 401 may be inclined to use Tremain (as those who now use James Snow Parkway) even though it requires doubling back until the intersection is opened it is a reasonable option. I think HVE has many more years before traffic becomes a problem.

Their is also a question of track traffic, as in how many trains are coming through on those tracks during rush hour. They are a different line then the ones at Thompson, and clearly different usage will affect traffic differently.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

Hope I'm not double posting (something is screwy with my browser)

Anyways, I emailed the town and got a huge dump of information. The long and the short of it is 1) The town has extensive plans from now until 2021, including the building an underpass for car traffic at the CNR rails west of Bronte on Derry.

That construction is scheduled to begin in 2014 and be completed in 2016. From the way the budget is divided 2014 will probably only encompass surveying, design and further assesments, with actually work comencing in 2015, but this last bit is just a reasonable guess based on the division of the budget over the 3 years being like 2%/49%/49%.


Anyways all the planing info is on Halton's site not Milton's as they are all regional roads. Or if you PM me I can forward the email the town sent.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

What the engineering department sent me is I suppose the official plan, not the we hope to expedite it plan. If council votes to move up the date then it would be reflected in the plan after said vote, but not until then.

And as best as I can read the plans the Tremain Interchange isn't due until 2018. But the plan is a little confusing that may be expansion of Tremain from 4 lane to 6 lane at the interchange (by 2021 both James Snow and Tremain will be 6 lane.)

****

Halfway through posing i just saw this:


Which would be congruent with Colin's comments. So it isn't in the master plan yet, but they are actively seeking those project be expedited.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

Hey, new students for new university campus coming to Milton are going to help to pay for all of those missing road infrastructures around Derry, Tremaine and 401.
Right?
We just have to wait for university to come and roads will come quickly.
Or is it coming after 2021?

From the announcement at Milton.ca it looks like construction on the Education Village zone won't commence for at least 3 years. So I can't imagine actual students for at least 5 years.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

Good, but I feel sorry for HVE + across Derry road people. Even if their homes prices went up 10K since U-coming announcement, they are going to pay their price in traffic disaster, which they are going to face in next two years. Probably. Single line road with train tracks crossing is not really good old news for those new subdivisions.

If you've been following the discussion at all you'd realize that well that is going to be a problem, it isn't going to be a significant problem in that short a time period, and if council has its way the expansion and construction will be in place before it becomes a problem... Now if the construction cannot be expedited it may be an issue.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

At least I learned another word today.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/expedited
Sounds very tantalizingly.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tantalizingly

There are many great words in the dictionary, it is a tantalizing story, but I will spoil it for you and let you in on the ending, the Zebra did it.

_________________
14C - Lot 82 - Upland B
Roleplaying Game Software for your iPhone: RPGTouch

Hi everyone

Sorry for the delay in getting back to regarding this issue.

Thanks Marc for your input, yes Development Charges are only 90% of the cost of new development with many facilities such as libraries and park facilities not included in the calculation thanks the the Provincial Development Charges Act which was passed in 1996. Regional council is now dealing with the issue and should have a new by-law in place by the end of June. The Province is also working with municipalities through their association called the AMO to rework the service funding where the Province funds a greater share health and social services and allows municipalities more room to work on local services which should be announced by June as well.

What the Town has been doing with builders is negotiating financial agreements over and above the DC's which was what the debate with Shellrock about, they did not want to pay anything more than what the Development Charges state.

The Town finance department worked out earlier this year that thanks to a new Provincial reserve fund requirement that the Town alone is about $ 10 million behind where is should be to have the reserves for roads, bridges and other facilities repair and replacement or about $ 10,000 for every new house. This is one of the issues the Region and all the local municipalities in Halton are requesting the Province to change the Development Charges Act and other legislation and to have long term funding provisions and information from the Province for major facilities such as hospitals, schools and interchanges and underpasses (check halton.ca home page for details)

Good to hear the school board has approved the building 3 elementary schools to open for September 2009, the hard part is having the Provincial funding to pay for it. The last school the public school board built in Milton was the Bruce Trail school which the Board has to spend nearly a $ 1 million in borrowing costs until the Provincial funding came through.

This is one of the difference's between both federal and provincial budgets and local/regional budgeting, the province which controls municipalities requires every municipality to have a 10 year capital budget.

But the municipalities have to wait till budget day to find out where the province or federal government is going to spend it's funds so municipalities don't know when major projects such as hospitals are to be built until the year it is budgeted.

For example Mississauga's Credit Valley hospital which is part of the Halton LHIN (Local Health Integrated Network) was a provincial top priority according to a previous Health Minister. It took 11 years from announcement to start until completion according to a recent presentation the regional health and social services committee had from the Halton LHIN.

Hopefully Milton's hospital expansion will be faster as there has been funds allocated last year to begin the technical studies for the expansion and Sunday's announcement of $ 662 million should also help Milton as well.

On Monday April 21st Milton's Administration and Planning Committee will be dealing with 4 applications for almost 2000 homes mostly on the west side of town for the phase two of Fieldgate home, the Mattamy Civerio land north of Derry on the east side of Tremaine and the Intracorp initial application at the south-east corner of Main St. W and Tremaine as well as the Milton Mosaics application at the north-east corner of Miller and Derry Road on the east side of town.

I agree with some comments regarding traffic congestion, since for every 100 homes approved with an average of two cars per home equals almost 1 kilometer of single lane traffic, so with 2000 new homes could equal almost 20 kilometers of bumper to bumper traffic if they were all on the road at the same time both going to work and coming home.

This is why the Town has requested the Region to accelerate the Derry Road underpass which is presently scheduled for completion in 2016 according the 2009-2017 Capital Works Program I received last week.
Council has requested both Town Engineering and Regional Public Works staff to have a workshop with everyone involved to accelerate the work on Derry as well as Tremaine up to a new interchange which is not projected at present to be complete until 2017 about 3 years after all the 40,000 person Sherwood Survey is completed!

I am also pushing Town staff is have Scott Blvd. completed from Derry to Main St. W. by the end of 2009 to give people an alternative to being backed up at the Derry rail crossing and give emergency vehicles an option to get to the Escarpment and Fieldgate homes as well as upgrading both Bronte St. N. and Steeles to 4 lanes in 2009-10 as at present the widening for Steeles Ave. between Martin St. and Industrial Drive is not scheduled to be done until 2015.

I would urge anyone interested in these issues to come out to public meeting and make your views and concerns heard because if Council and staff to not hear from anyone, which happened at the last meeting where three retail centers had their initial presentation where anyone from the audience is invited to speak by the Chair no one spoke. Then staff and councillors conclude that not one has a problem or concern regarding the application even though every home within 120 metres of the application receives a notice of the meeting, which is also advertised on the Town web site milton.ca and signs on the property.

Also for those interested in transit and transportation issues the new Metrolinx agency which is now controlling GO transit and working to co-ordinate the GTA's transit systems, has released six green papers on a number of issues from planning for transit oriented areas to the future of both rail and road networks in the GTA.

You can read the papers on line at www.metrolinx.com or go to Milton Public Library at Pearl and Ontario street where I have left copies for public use.

Also Regional Staff is working on the options for Halton's Place's to Grow new employment and residential areas which should be released next month for public meetings and input. The Region is required by the Province to amend it's Official Plan by June 2009 to potential add from 75,000 to 150,000 people to the Milton area by the year 2031 over and above the 175,000 people that Milton has in its current Official Plan for 2031 when all three surveys (Bristol, Sherwood & Boyne) are projected to be completed.

I would urge anyone interested in the future of their community to attend these meetings and read up on the information when it is released both on halton.ca and milton.ca in the next few months.

Colin Best
Vice-chair
Milton Administration & Planning Committee
colin.best@milton.ca