Mississauga LRT gets stops

NRU
April 16, 2014
By Edward LaRusic

Funding remains a question mark, but in Mississauga station locations for the proposed Hurontario-Main LRT have been chosen, and official plan amendments to support added density are in the works.

Mississauga planning and building commissioner Ed Sajecki said the Hurontario LRT ties deeply into the city’s strategic plan, of which developing a “transit-orientated Mississauga” is one of the five strategic pillars.

“The light rail along Hurontario is quite honestly a game changer. It’s absolutely crucial in terms of tying in with the regional GO [Transit] network,” said Sajecki. “It will structure the land use of the city.”

Nineteen locations have been identified for an LRT station.

“We’ve had a whole consulting team that’s been working with city staff and working with the public through many community meetings. We were looking at station spacing and location, and where you can accommodate a station,” Sajecki said.

A business case was presented to Metrolinx, which added the Hurontario-Main LRT, running between Mississauga and Brampton, to its list of priority projects.

The proposed LRT is currently unfunded, but the recent announcement by the provincial government to invest $15-billion in transit infrastructure in the GTA cited the Hurontario LRT as one of the projects that could benefit from the new investment.

“Higher order transit along Hurontario has been identified for a considerable period of time,” said Sajecki. “As we got more into more detailed studies, looking at what format that should take the conclusion was, through the studies and the business cases, that there’s enough volume along that corridor to justify light rail. One of the reasons the business case is very strong, is that there’s already high[er-order] transit uses with our buses along that corridor.”

Mayor Hazel McCallion - a huge proponent of the Hurontario-Main LRT - said she’s pleased with the government’s recent announcement.

“I’m very delighted that the Mississauga LRT was mentioned in Premier [Kathryn] Wynne’s announcement, because it’s been very high on the priority list at Metrolinx for a number of years. We’re moving right ahead to have it ready, all we need is the money to make it happen.”

Sajecki noted that the LRT would connect five mobility hubs in Peel Region, including the Port Credit GO station, Cooksville GO station, and downtown Mississauga, as it connects with the new east-west bus rapid transit along Highway 403.

The proposed stations are situated in two parts, with the north part - roughly between Derry Road West and Matheson Boulevard - designated a “corporate centre” in the official plan and the south section - between Highway 407 and Queen Elizabeth Way - designated “downtown.”

“If you look at the northern area, it’s more employment orientated, in part because a good chunk of those lands are within the airport operating area. So with the noise impact, you can’t put residential in a portion in that area. So that is designated more as a corporate centre. Whereas the downtown will be more mixed use in terms of development, as well as commercial, office and retail.”

Despite the inability to include residential uses in most of the corporate centre, the city is still grappling with what uses should be allowed. A recent Ontario Municipal Board decision on an official plan amendment application for a property on the northwest corner of Derry Road West and Hurontario Street allowed an appeal by Artorisa Investments Ltd. for a two-storey motor vehicle repair facility.

Sajecki said the city would prefer a use that can better utilize the future LRT.

“We weren’t satisfied that [the Artorisa Investments development] meets the land use that we would like to see ... the zoning that’s currently in place would permit similar kind of uses.

So this really points out the need for the city not to deal with these projects on a one-off ad hoc basis, but to have in place the planning documents that [prescribe] the type of land use that council would like to see, that supports higher-order transit.”

The preliminary engineering design for the LRT has been completed, and a transit project assessment process with the Ministry of the Environment is underway and expected to be complete in late summer. Mississauga LRT project manager Matthew Williams told NRU that the preliminary cost of building the full LRT project has been estimated at 1.6-billion and will likely take - subject to funding - at least 7 years to complete.

“We’ve done preliminary design, which is about 30 per cent of the design. We would have to go out and hire a consulting team to take us to the next phase, and because of the complexities of going through that process, it would probably take about two years to hire a team. Once they’re on board, they’d have to finish the design, so you’re probably looking at three or four years before construction would actually occur.

Once construction occurred, it would take about three years, depending on how they decide to construct [the LRT].”

The consulting team for the Hurontario-Main LRT is led by SNC-Lavalin and includes Steer Davies Gleave, Dialog and LEA Consulting Ltd.

The planning and development committee received a staff recommendation Monday to hold a public meeting on the official plan amendments needed to identify the LRT station locations in the official plan. It will go to council April 23.