Supporting a Car-Optional Community: Planning for People

Why is there so little accountability surrounding the high costs of establishing and maintaining Sandwich South, the 1,000 farmland subdivision that is to anchor the planned new hospital?  A $216,800 pedestrian and bicycle path in a new South Windsor subdivision was unanimously approved during the May 27, 2019 City Council meeting. When built, it will considerably shorten Rockport Street residents’ walk to the nearest existing bus stop for the Walkerville 8 bus route. We’re excited that Council has embraced a plan that puts people before cars. Yet there’s more to this story, and we're writing about it today because it illustrates the lack of insight into the costs of new subdivisions, in contrast to development of existing neighbourhoods with good population density where good connectivity to public transit already exists. The developer’s lawyer (at 7:35) asked if the pathway's cost justifies its future benefit. His client favoured not building it at all. Fortunately Council decided otherwise. Councillor Chris Holt established (at 8:04) that maintenance of the 312 foot (95 m) pathway - mowing and snow removal - will come out of Windsor’s operational funding. This has not been budgeted.  How does this relate to the planned hospital location? The 1,000 acre Sandwich South development (roughly the size of downtown Windsor) is significantly larger than the Rockport subdivision. The scale of the capital and maintenance costs will therefore be significantly greater: Windsor taxpayers will pay at least $220M - more than a fourth! - of the $850M in capital costs for developing Sandwich South and East Pelton, the subdivision to be built beside it. Together, they are expected to house 13,243 people, even though the city's Planning Department expects Windsor's population to increase by just 7,752 through 2036.

These capital costs do not even include the additional tens of millions of dollars needed for public transit and EMS. Additional maintenance and running costs, in perpetuity, are to be paid by Windsor’s operational budget. These future costs have not been announced. The lack of clarity around future costs at a time of modest overall population growth is a key reason for our August 2018 request to defer the approval of Sandwich South. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul? Our future population growth is expected to be modest. It’s safe to assume there will be little appetite for higher taxes. And yet, driving-optional amenities are more important than ever for our aging population. If Sandwich South goes ahead as proposed, uncomfortable choices will have to be made about providing the new amenities to support a healthy and active community. What amenities will be cut back in the absence of robust growth in our tax base? We’re hopeful that Council will revisit its approval of the Secondary South Planning Area. Without public insight into its expected future costs, the decision to develop it was neither transparent nor accountable.

Some recent comments from our friends and neighbours:

"BIAs should not be bullied by the mayor." ~ "It is a bad planning decision and devoid of any real imagination or courage. We should not allow people with so little creativity to lead this mega project." ~ "Everything about the MegaHospital county location is wrong. Others have built next generation hospitals on the same site as working hospitals, while the existing hospital continued to operate. (e.g. Sarnia, after strongly considering a greenfield build)" ~ "Good governance is the key to solving tough problems. This hospital siting process is a classic example of democracy being hijacked by a few hidden powerbrokers. The result is a process which is undemocratic, corrupt, irresponsible and unaccountable. The end result is a hospital site choice which does not serve the needs of the majority of the people, is the highest cost solution, has the greatest negative environmental impact and causes maximum economic harm to the core of the city." ~ "Have we not learned about city bad decisions re location of important  core facilities. WFCU is a prime example, located in the booneys at the time." ~ "Drew Dilkens has proven himself time and again to be beholden to his special friends, and to have no understanding whatsoever about urban planning. He voted to locate the Spitfires outside of downtown, he pushed for the white elephant water park. And now, he wants to gentrify our city centre for who knows what "real" reason. I live in the county, however a city site makes much more financial and common sense, to avoid further de-centralization and urban sprawl. Windsor needs a real business- person, with common sense, to get the city back on track."