On February 24 agenda there is the draft TMP with a recommendation for Council to approve it.  Changes have been made to draft presented in previous Council which, I believe, enhance the value of this masterplan.  I commented earlier about the plan; and want to make a couple additional comments.  I do have a couple points which I will be raising at Council; but overall I think this is a valuable document in defining the gaps in our infrastructure (either existing today or likely to exist given developments) which need to be addressed, and what actions we can take to reduce GHG emissions created by transportation choices.

As I have identified previously, for  the Councillor of  Ward 5, this TMP comes across as being very aggressive in terms of extending the 15th SDRD west of Keele through to Hwy 400.  Having said that I recognize that it is a perceived solution to the ever increasing congestion in core of King City; I am satisfied that the draft TMP is acknowledging that it is a special study area requiring an EA .  And, it also identifies that the possibility of the GTA West Corridor may influence the perspective of the need for a new HWY 400 interchange north of King Road. I will be pointing out to Staff  that in the various maps provided in the TMP the “*” notation to indicate that it is a special study area  is not correctly placed or indeed is sometimes missing.

Since the last Council meeting when the draft was reviewed there has been new interest/concern expressed about the possibility of uploading some roads to York Region.  (see page 77 of 180) in the draft.   “Uploading” is understandably a red flag to citizens as it indicates loss of control.  In my mind the value of including this section is that it is acknowleding problems which either exist today or will exist as forecasted population increases (both in King and in other municipalties which are the source of the traffic using “our” roads.) As noted in the TMP in this section, both cost and feasibility studies need to be done before uploads are determined and acted upon.

Both of these issues i.e  15th SDRD and uploads  reinforces why everyone should be relentless in demanding both provincial and federal levels of government to fund public transit.  King Township is surrounded by growing municipalities and we have north/south routes traversing the Township; to reach them our neighbours need to go through King.

This TMP  (starting page 82 of 182) is very valuable in laying out how active transportation (AT) can become more satisfying. A curious stat:  in  King there are 319.8 km of AT facilities i.e. paths, sidewalks, paved shoulders etc.   (We always talk about our 300+ km of roads.) There is much work to be done such as joining up sidewalks, providing safe crossing points, ensuring safe paths to the GO Train station.  Much of this is in King’s control; we just need to make it a budget and resource priority.

For those who have provided feedback to the draft look at Appendix B to see how your feedback has been addressed.