[All] Urgent! Westside Waterloo Costco Concerns

Thu Apr 3 01:09:27 EDT 2014

Hello GREN folks,

This coming Monday, April 7th, Waterloo City Council will vote to approve a proposal to build a Costco Membership Warehouse on Erb St. across from the Waterloo Landfill.  The facility is expected to total over 200,000 square feet with a 975 car parking lot, a 16 pump gas bar, and additional big-box stores.  It is estimated the development attract more than 5,500 cars per day with weekend peak hours surpassing 1,400 cars per hour.  The projected opening date is December, 2014.

While many people in Waterloo are excited about a Costco coming to town, few are aware of the significant issues we face.  There are a numerous unanswered questions and issues that need to be addressed before a final decision is made:

1) Widespread Traffic Congestion - Almost all other Costco's are located near multiple arterial roads and freeways designed to handle high traffic volumes.  This Erb St. location is a two-lane road already facing traffic issues.  As a result planners are predicting:
	- Severe delays and widespread congestion on area roads with overflow traffic impacting residential streets and even rural roads in Wilmot Township
	- Travel times to increase dramatically as speeds on some roads during peak times drop to below that of walking speeds.  For example, parts of Erb Street with current travel times of less than 1 minute, are expected to increase to 7 to 9 minutes to travel less than 750 meters.  This is even after a widening to four lanes in 2018.

2) Infrastructure Issues - Commerical development is part of the City Official Plan but development was not expected until 2018 after area roads such as Erb Street, Ira Needles and Columbia Street are widened.  Such large scale development surpassing 200,000 sq ft was never anticipated.  Other necessary infrastructure such as sidewalks, trails, bus routes, etc. isn't expected to reach the development until several years after opening.

3) Communications and Public Engagement - Neither the City of Waterloo, The Rice Commercial Group (the developer), or Costco are planning any public information sessions, open houses or consultation events about this proposed development prior to the final vote this coming Monday, April 7th.  Staff reports and most studies were just released to the public days ago and most citizens have learned about this plan in recent newspaper articles:
	- Costco Conundrum - http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/costco-conundrum/
	- Traffic Pile-up - http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/traffic-pileup/

4) Other Area Impacts - Both Costco and the Regional Landfill share the same peak hours.  The landfill is already experiencing queuing issues, causing cars to back up out onto Erb Street right where new roundabouts are to be located for Costco.  This would bring traffic to a standstill as cars would be unable to get through the congested roundabouts.
	- Severe congestion could restrict the ability for Fire, Police and Ambulance services to reach the Costco area, the communities beyond, or even return to the city from the EMS training center in case of an emergency.
	- Environmental and ground water recharge areas to the north could be overwhelmed by traffic seeking to avoid the predicted severe traffic congestion on Erb St, Ira Needles Blvd, Columbia Street, etc.  This could reverse years of efforts to protect these vital parts of our community.

Few can fathom that a high volume store such as Costco could be built with only one two lane road for access on the onset and ultimately only two roads reaching the store by 2018. The resulting long-term congestion could so negatively impact so many Westside area roads and neighbourhoods.  However, this is the plan being recommended by City Staff (report link below) for final approval this Monday night.

What You Can Do

It is really important that we raise the awareness about the importance of Monday's City Council vote as our community could be impacted by a hasty decision here for decades.  Here are some easy things that you, your family, friends, and neighbours can do:

- Contact City and Regional Councillors: Tell them that an approval would be premature and ask them to support a motion to defer decision until after public consultations and integrated traffic plans have been completed.  You can reach all City Councillors at one simple e-mail address - council at waterloo.ca and Regional Councillors at - regionalcouncillors at regionofwaterloo.ca

- Get your social networks involved: Start conversations and ask questions on Twitter and Facebook about the issues that concern you the most.  Use the hashtag #WCostco so the community can easily follow the conversation;

- Write a letter to the editor and get local media engaged in the vital community discussions surrounding this proposal and what sort of community we seek to become;

- Attend Monday's City of Waterloo Council meeting for the vote on the Costco development proposal.  Register to speak if you like or simply be present to support other presenters.  A strong attendance and showing of concern from the community will be important as an empty room sure wouldn't send a strong message to Council;

- Learn more by reading the City and Developer Reports at http://www.waterloo.ca/en/business/924and930ErbStreetWest.asp and the Regional Report attached below.

Hopefully we can collaborate as a community with the City, the Region, the developers, and Costco to find the best path forward for our community and not rush into a situation with so many unanswered traffic, EMS, environmental, and financial questions with no way out after the zoning approval being sought on Monday. 

Please let us know any questions, thoughts, or ideas.

Kevin.

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City Costco Proposal Reports including detailed traffic studies:

http://www.waterloo.ca/en/business/924and930ErbStreetWest.asp

Regional Costco Proposal Report:

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Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com

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