City council puts brakes on First Avenue Bus Rapid Transit plans

For the second time in just over a month, Saskatoon city councilors have hit the pause button on some big plans.

On March 25, a recommendation that proposed Oakview Group 360 manage the new downtown arena and conference centre was voted down 5-3, meaning city administration canceled the procurement process.

At Wednesday’s meeting, council also voted not to move ahead with revised plans for the Link Bus Rapid Transit project along First Avenue between 19th Street and 25th Street.

Read more:

• Bridge closure, College Drive construction likely to cause delays for U of S students, staff
• Saskatoon city council delays College Drive BRT project approval plans by one month
• Saskatoon holding final open house on downtown Link Rapid Transit plans tonight

According to a news release from the city, council has now directed administration to meet with the Saskatoon Accessibility Advisory Committee to review the accessibility plan, and to “report back with broader operational considerations, including emergency response planning, emergency access and snow removal plans.”

During the more-than-four-hour debate on the matter, about half a dozen presenters had their say for and against the plans, which would have removed 61 parking spaces. Several corridor elements were also changed, including dedicated transit only lanes from contraflow, to adjacent traffic flow.

Even with the changes, there were concerns.

Shawna Nelson, executive director of the Downtown Saskatoon BID, told councilors there needed to be more communication between city administration and stakeholders, and more feedback from businesses that would be directly affected by the changes.

“This inconsistency is crucial. We need to take a look at how we are reaching out to our stakeholders, how we’re engaging, and how we are collecting our data and recording it,” Nelson said, “especially when we are making pivotal decisions like this, on unreliable foundation,” she said.

There were also supporters of the plan, including Robert Clipperton with Bus Riders of Saskatoon. He said the plan was well thought out and cautioned council not to pare down the project from a “BRT” to just a “B.”

Speaking to council, Clipperton characterized the issue as coming “down to whether I think we want to move backward to the city of Saskatoon in 1974 when I bought my first car and found that I had no real difficulty finding a parking spot downtown.

“Or, if we want to move forward past today when I still have no real difficulty in finding a parking spot downtown to the future when our transit system will be so good that most of our citizen rarely consider taking their car to get downtown,” he said.

Terry Schmidt, general manager of transportation and construction for the city, cautioned council that any changes to the plans would likely require approval from the federal government, and could push back the timeline of that project.

That would be “to give them an opportunity to review that to ensure that it still meets the requirements of the BRT system application that they originally approved,” Schmidt said.

It’s not clear at this time when administration will report back to city council and whether the delay will affect the timeline for the BRT project overall.

According to the city’s release, work will continue on the Link project in other parts of the city, including the College Drive corridor, and where additional station platforms are needed.