{"id":9314,"date":"2010-02-05T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T18:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=9314"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:38:55","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:38:55","slug":"environmental-assessment-scarborough-malverns-transit-projects-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/02\/05\/environmental-assessment-scarborough-malverns-transit-projects-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Assessment: Scarborough-Malvern’s Transit Projects Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"This post is part of a series of articles<\/a> exploring the Environmental Assessment process and how it\u2019s shaping Toronto. The series focuses on four major developments currently at the EA stage.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Though you may not know much about the person sitting next to you on the streetcar, chances are you have at least one thing in common: you both want to get to where you\u2019re going quickly. Whether we are heading towards Kennedy Station or a revitalized approach to urban transportation, we\u2019re understandably impatient about arriving at our destination.<\/p>\n

In the case of a better transit system, each of us is silently groaning, \u201care we there yet?\u201d And why shouldn\u2019t we? Changes to the TTC will alter our paths and patterns, economic possibilities, and environmental realities in a way that few other projects can.<\/p>\n

Like a long ride with many transfers, the environmental assessment process is notoriously arduous \u2014 which is why the Ontario Government made the bold move in 2008 to streamline transit undertakings as a unique class of environmental assessments known as Transit Project Assessments.<\/p>\n

In this edition of the EA series<\/a>, I\u2019ll be looking at the Transit Project Assessment process through the lens of the Scarborough-Malvern Light Rail Transit (SMLRT) project. This project, in various incarnations, has been a transit pipe dream since the 1980s. Bandied back and forth for several decades, it gained steam with the Transit City announcement in 2007 and again last year when Toronto\u2019s 2015 Pan Am Games bid was accepted.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Broadly, the project seeks to improve transit access to northeast Scarborough, support local population and employment growth, accommodate future ridership, connect Scarborough Rapid Transit to the Sheppard Light Rail Transit line, and provide rapid transit access to Centennial College\u2019s Morningside campus and University of Toronto\u2019s Scarborough campus. The 10-kilometre route has committed funding of $1.4 billion, and is expected to<\/span> will hopefully open in time for the Pan Am Games. (The image above is the planned route. For more information about the specifics of the route, please see the SMLRT Environmental Project Report Executive Summary<\/a> [PDF].)<\/p>\n

Under the guidelines of the streamlined transit project assessment, the SMLRT is exempt from the requirements of a regular EA. This means no terms of reference (ToR) document is produced. Recall that the ToR defines the scope of the assessment and involves a fair portion of the public consultation (see our EA Primer<\/a> for more details). As Steve Munro rightly noted a in a comment on a previous installment of this series, there\u2019s an expectation that \u201ca lot of the legwork of public consultation and a good chunk of preliminary design will happen before the [transit project assessment] formally gets underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the streamlined transit assessments sacrifice in content, they make up for in time: Transit EAs have six months to cross the finish line. Unlike other EAs, the Transit Assessment begins with a chosen transit project. In other words, proponents do not have to justify the need for the project or identify alternative solutions. Instead, the assessment requires proponents to describe the project and its design, consult with appropriate stakeholders, evaluate potential impacts, and offer proposed measures for mitigating these impacts.<\/p>\n

Munro has concerns about transparency and meaningful opportunities for public comment. \u201c[The Transit approval process was] badly perverted in the old way,\u201d he says. \u201cThe new way relies on the good will of the proponent to undertake proper public consultation prior to the process itself. By the time the project receives consultation, detail and design decisions have already been made.\u201d Streamlining eliminates some key opportunities to present ideas, collect feedback, adapt plans, and gain public trust.<\/p>\n

Some argue that, when it comes to transit, this streamlining is justified. The Ministry of the Environment reasons that \u201ca shorter process for these environmentally beneficial projects will help get people out of their cars and onto public transit. This is good news for Ontarian\u2019s health and the health of the environment.\u201d The SMLRT\u2019s Environmental Project Report estimates that particulate pollutants will decrease by 25 percent, gaseous pollutants by two percent and carbon dioxide by 1.2 kilotonnes per year within the study area as a result of the LRT.<\/p>\n

Positive impacts of the SMLRT extend beyond atmospheric concentrations and into community benefits. There is broad consensus in the planning community about the economic benefits of LRT. According a recent Region of Waterloo study, \u201c[r]ail transit has a demonstrable influence on land values and locational decisions and is recognized as a planning tool that can support and encourage the development of more sustainable land use patterns. LRT has been shown to influence land development in part because, being tied to tracks, it is both distinct and perceived to be permanent.\u201d With 45 percent of Malvern residents over age 15 qualifying as low-income earners, the sooner these benefits reach northeast Scarborough, the better.<\/p>\n

But Ontario\u2019s Environmental Commissioner<\/a>, Gord Miller, gives the streamlined process an amber light. Citing the public uproar around the use of diesel cars on the Union-Pearson rail link, the Commissioner worries that \u201cthe streamlined transit EA doesn\u2019t allow for the consideration of alternatives. Had the Union-Pearson EA been completed in a more classical sense, we might have ended up in the same place without all of the irate people. We ended up with the best alternative but not in the analytical, progressive, consultative way that EAs are supposed to proceed. We ended up there through conflict, which the EA is supposed to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

While transit comes with many obvious environmental benefits, Gord Miller reminds us that \u201csome elements of these projects can be highly problematic and thus should have a process that incorporates considerations of need and alternatives.\u201d He says it\u2019s a matter of scope and magnitude \u2014 while the SMLRT has been relatively smooth sailing, not all transit projects are uniformly beneficial.<\/p>\n

The SMLRT has justifiably broad public approval; there are measurable net benefits to\u00a0 reducing vehicular traffic, facilitating economic development, and linking a Toronto neighbourhood to the wider city. But transit projects as a whole deserve transparent analysis and the scrutiny of an informed public empowered with meaningful opportunities to shape final outcomes. Next time you find yourself nose-to-nose with an impatient TTC stranger, consider asking him or her whether it\u2019s worthwhile to take some extra time to get where we are going.<\/p>\n

With thanks to Steve Munro and Gord Miller<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of a series of articles exploring the Environmental Assessment process and how it\u2019s shaping Toronto. The series focuses on four major developments currently at the EA stage. Though you may not know much about the person sitting next to you on the streetcar, chances are you have at least one thingContinue reading “Environmental Assessment: Scarborough-Malvern’s Transit Projects Assessment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4081,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,8],"tags":[8435,14270,888,134,3459,956,1157,636,1177,14268,416,3436,89,1048,14269,1187,19,14267,270,1047,6090,391],"class_list":["post-9314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-transit","tag-centennial-college","tag-centennial-colleges-morningside-campus","tag-commissioner","tag-environmental-assessment","tag-gord-miller","tag-kennedy-station","tag-ministry-of-the-environment","tag-ontario","tag-ontario-government","tag-ontarios-environmental","tag-pdf","tag-pearson","tag-scarborough","tag-scarborough-campus","tag-smlrt-environmental-project-report-executive","tag-steve-munro","tag-toronto","tag-torontos-2015-pan-am-games","tag-university-of-toronto","tag-university-of-torontos","tag-urban-transportation","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnvironmental Assessment: Scarborough-Malvern's Transit Projects Assessment - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/02\/05\/environmental-assessment-scarborough-malverns-transit-projects-assessment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Environmental Assessment: Scarborough-Malvern's Transit Projects Assessment - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is part of a series of articles exploring the Environmental Assessment process and how it\u2019s shaping Toronto. 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