Amendment: Add Seymour Street Transit Improvements

Thanks. I agree that we have overwhelming social licence to do this. And not only that, but this has been planned for a very long time. It's important, though, to realise that this does come with ramifications for transit users who have been moved off Granville Street. And that does involve... transit users having new stops on Seymour Street and Howe Street and that has consequences for transit users' convenience, wayfinding and just the kind of environment that they are in. waiting for buses on and also extends the distance for some users to and from their bus stops. So this amendment addresses some points that I've heard from transit users about buses getting stuck on the ramp from the bridge to Seymour. So it covers extending the bus lane to cover the whole ramp to start As we study the permanent pedestrianisation that we include, bus stop locations to making transfers to the Canada Line and Georgia buses difficult. That's an issue that we've heard about. We need to examine ridership transfers and potentially propose bus stop moves to make it better and easier for transit users. And also sidewalks on Seymour are far too narrow to handle big volumes of people, let alone when the wheelchair ramp is needed. So that does block the whole sidewalk. So I'd like to see us explore installing quick build bus bulbs at the very busiest stops on Seymour. We've also heard that buses turning from Seymour and Howe Street to Hastings, Pender and Cordova get delayed, so we might want to look at making changes to turn signals to speed up these turns. So that's covered in this amendment. I hope that it will get the support of council.

Thanks very much. Councillor Bligh.

I'm not on for an amendment. No, sorry, this is the main queue. This is not an amendment queue.

So I asked earlier I thought it was anyway Let's just take it to the amendment queue. Okay, and then we've already heard from council and just reset timers Let me see if anybody else wants to speak to it Is this this is this is speaking to the amendment I wasn't on the queue I'm not sure why okay. I'm not yeah, we've got gremlins in the in the voting panel right now So if there are is there are there anybody wanting to speak to the amendment?

We'll make sure that we get you on.

That's fine. That's fine. Do we need to take just a short two-minute recess to sort this out, or are we okay?

All right.

Okay. Right. All right. Any other speakers to... I'd like to speak to the... Okay. And presumably with this one, your clock would be at zero, right? Just starting?

Yeah, I'm not sure. It doesn't matter. I just have a quick question through the chair, if I may. Go ahead. To city manager. I understand council has clearly passed the Granville Street plan. And in that plan, there was much... discussion around the relocation of bus routes permanently to Howe and Seymour Street upon implementation of the plan. Just looking at the language in this amendment, is this work already contemplated as part of that Granville Street plan? It's my understanding that it is, but I just would like to confirm through you.

And I can repeat that if you like. It's okay.

Very good.

Okay, so this work around the relocating of the buses permanently to Howe and Seymour when the plan begins to be implemented and specifications around bus lanes, it's already part of the Granville Street Plan?

It is.

Okay, that's my recollection as well. So I support this work happening, I just don't think this amendment is necessary. It's redundant in my opinion. Thanks for confirming.

Councillor Pryor, did you second this amendment? Councillor Pryor is seconding the amendment. Okay. Councillor Maloney.

Yeah, I moved this amendment because of concerns of transit users. I think that it... would help to pass this to make sure that this work is undertaken during this unexpected extension, which wasn't contemplated during our discussions of the Granville Street Plan. I would welcome any suggested language from Councillor Meiszner or anyone else that would make that more clear. But my intention was that we capitalise on the opportunity presented by this large amount of expenditure, let's face it, on extending this during the non-World Cup period of summer to look at these issues that affect transit users. Thank you.

Thanks very much. I've still got...

It's me. Okay. I know you can't see the screen, Chair, so I understand why it's a bit difficult. So... This is a seven-week extension. We're extending till the end of summer, which I'm in full support of, and I think will be fantastic. But after that extension is complete, traffic will go back to normal on Howe and Seymour streets. There will be the return of street parking on those streets, and the buses will return to Gravel Street. So it doesn't make sense to me to spend what looks like a substantial amount of staff time and frankly, resources to study something that's already part of the Granville Street plan, as we've heard from the city manager. So I just don't want to make work projects for staff. This is seven weeks extending the pedestrian zone. It's going to be fantastic. Like I'm not here to make work projects for staff for something for seven weeks. This is already contemplated. This is already part of the Granville Street plan. So I know my colleague is new to council, but this work is going to be happening in the Granville Street plan. So I can't support it. And I think we should move on.

Councillor Dominato.

Thanks, Chair. I was just going to note, since the city manager has noted this work is already underway and being undertaken by the city, that, in fact, this item is likely out of order under Section 8.7 of the Procedure By-law, Section C and F. I would suggest it's simply out of order due to the fact that it's already being undertaken.

So you would like a ruling on whether this is out of order? Then we'll have to take a short recess to discuss. I'll discuss it with our clerk and staff.

Thanks very much.

Okay, well, we have forums who will now resume the meeting. So I am, after deliberating with the clerk and staff, I will be ruling this motion in order, and not because the things outlined in it are not currently in the plan. In fact, we seem to have confirmed with staff that virtually everything in this motion is on the work plan. It's just that the amount of effort to go through previous motions and discussions around this would be extraordinarily time-consuming and be very hard to determine if exact details overlapped with previous decisions. So with that, we will proceed with debate and decision on this amendment. Thanks very much. So, Councillor Domenato, do you have further comments? Okay, so Clerk Lynn, please take us to a vote. Oh, Councillor Maloney, I see that you are on there. Go ahead.

Thank you. I appreciate the sentiment that this is going to be great, and I think it is, but I don't appreciate being insulted as a new councillor with that not being explained in any way. I do... think that this does have negative consequences for transit users and we need to investigate how much. We're investing a not insignificant amount of taxpayer funds to extend this trial to September and it's explicitly stated in the motion itself. that one of the justifications for continuing is that it gives us an opportunity to learn from the extension at a non-World Cup time. So I think that council voting down this amendment risks giving transit users the impression that council doesn't prioritise their interests.

Thanks. Councillor Meiszner.

Thank you. The fact is, is that this is a seven-week extension of the pedestrian zone, as we've been discussing here. And as we've heard from the city manager, as I'll just state again, this work is, and we just heard from the chair as well, this work is in the Granville Street plan. So... it doesn't make sense to me for staff to go and undertake all this work for the seven-week extension. It does make sense to me for staff to undertake this work for the Granville Street plan, and that's why I voted to support it earlier this year. So I can't support the amendment.

Just over time, thanks very much. Okay, with that, can we go to the voting panel, please?

Thank you.