ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: June 18, 1996
Dept. File No. 4102-2
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services and
Director of City Plans
SUBJECT: Status of Light Rail Transit and the City's Role
INFORMATION
The General Manager of Engineering Services and the Director o f
City Plans submit this report for INFORMATION.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council recommend to the GVRD and the Province that a Broadway/Lougheed
LRT to Lougheed Mall and Coquitlam Town Centre via Port Moody be the
first priority line for new Light Rapid Transit.
PURPOSE
To report on the status of the implementation of the Broadway Light
Rapid Transit Project.
BACKGROUND
In May 1995, City Council recommended to the GVRD and Province that "a
Broadway/Lougheed line to Lougheed Mall and Coquitlam Town Centre via
Port Moody be the first priority line to the North East Sector."
In September 1995, the Province announced a 10-Year Transit Development
Plan. This Plan included the construction of a primarily at-grade Light
Rapid Transit (LRT) line along the Broadway-Lougheed Coquitlam Corridor
by 2005 with a connection to New Westminster by 2008, provided
municipalities commit to land use supportive to generating ridership
along the route.
The Central Broadway to Coquitlam LRT link is 27 km long and is
estimated to cost $900 million. The Lougheed Mall to New Westminster
link (6.5 km) is outside the 10-Year Plan but will also be studied now.
It is estimated to cost $250 million.
BC Transit is working with the Crown Corporation Secretariat, the GVRD
and municipal representatives to develop a draft protocol agreement
defining roles for various organizations in the next phase of the LRT
Project.
PROTOCOL AGREEMENT
The Provincial Government has requested that before detailed work
begins, a protocol agreement be developed. This agreement will define
the work to be done over the next 1´ to 2 years leading to a "go/no go"
decision on construction and the relationship between the major agencies
(Province, BC Transit, GVRD, the City and other affected
municipalities). Discussions have already taken place between the Crown
Corporation Secretariat, BC Transit, the GVRD and the five affected
municipal staffs (including Vancouver).
The Protocol Agreement will provide a framework to discuss and resolve
the major items listed below. The final arrangement will be determined
through negotiation between the Province, the GVRD and five affected
municipalities. A final agreement will be forwarded to Council for
consideration and approval.
1. Cost Sharing, Governance and Private/Public Partnerships
The estimated cost of the LRT between Central Broadway and Coquitlam is
$900 million. However, the Province has only identified $600 million
within its Budget Management Plan. The rest will have to be found from
other sources. These sources include those currently controlled by
other governments (local municipalities and the GVRD), the Vancouver
Regional Transit Commission (fuel taxes, hydro levies, property taxes)
and potential new sources such as regional development cost charges or
transportation demand management revenues.
The draft Protocol Agreement will specify that funding and governance
issues will be determined through government-to-government negotiations
between the Province and GVRD, even though the GVRD indicated on
October 26, 1995, that it did not support a proposed transfer of
financial responsibility for provincial costs for transit to the GVRD
and municipal governments.
The City may be impacted by some of these negotiations and will want to
take a direct role. For example, the use of the residential property
tax could be proposed to finance the local share. This would impact all
taxpayers. It would be important the City comment on the implications
this could have on the ability of Vancouver taxpayers to pay a transit
tax and, at the same time, the provision of other City services. Given
our
population size, and relatively large tax base, Vancouver could end up
paying a disproportionate share of the cost of the system relative to
other parts of the GVRD.
Governance of the LRT (i.e., who controls or shares control) and
governance of the overall transit system may also be addressed at this
time. The City already supports the notion that the GVRD should be
responsible for Transit in the Region. It may be useful to revisit this
recommendation of Council if or when this matter resurfaces.
Previous major transit initiatives have been largely funded by the
Province and owned and operated by BC Transit. Public/Private
Partnership (P3's) have been discussed as a way to reduce government
costs by including the private sector in constructing, operating and
maintaining the Broadway LRT.
There is much work yet to be done to better understand how this could
work and the risks to government and the private sector. We believe
significant preliminary design is required before any decision can be
made on public-private partnerships.
2. Preliminary Design and Service Standards
The work in this area includes a wide range of activities, starting with
basic service needs. These include identifying ridership patterns and
projections, capacity requirements, train frequencies, equipment and
operating needs, service needs, etc. There also needs to be a far
better understanding of both local and long distance travel behaviour as
well as an appropriate interface with the existing transit system. For
example, the Broadway Corridor is already the most heavily used
conventional bus corridor in the region, outside the downtown, carrying
about 50,000 passengers a day (about one half of SkyTrain's daily
ridership). Many of these trips are short and destined to employment
and medical services destinations within Central Broadway. It will be
necessary to assure these and other local transit service needs along
the Broadway Corridor continue to be met when the LRT line is operating.
In addition, alignment and station location options need to be addressed
within the corridor, including any grade separation needs. The City
will also need to be very involved in the "fit" of the LRT within the
City. The introduction of LRT in the Broadway Corridor will have a
major impact on:
- the street system and traffic patterns
- the adjacent land uses, including access, noise, visual
appearance, etc.
- urban design
- the City's (and others') infrastructure (sewers, water, gas, etc.)
- pedestrians, bicycle and existing transit services
To the extent possible, these impacts (and many others) will need to be
reviewed and mitigation options identified during the preliminary design
process.
It has been suggested that a public-private partnership needs to be
established early as a means of reducing costs. Staff believe that the
preliminary design and service standards need to be adequately resolved
before there is any private sector involvement in this project. This
issue could be resolved as part of a public decision-making process.
Once this project proceeds to final design and construction, the City's
involvement would be similar to the development of the SkyTrain system.
This requires developing working arrangements between BC Transit, their
designers and contractors and virtually all City departments.
3. Land Use Planning
A Broadway line to Coquitlam will achieve two goals. It will move
people along the Broadway/Lougheed Corridor (initially mainly in
Vancouver) the "serving" function, and it will attract and encourage the
development of the Burnaby and NE Sector portion of the Compact
Metropolitan Region (the "shaping" function).
The Province will not begin construction of the line unless it has
agreements in place with Coquitlam, Port Moody, Burnaby, Vancouver, and
New Westminster committing to land uses that will achieve the GVRD
Livable Region Strategic Plan targets. The Province wishes to conclude
these agreements in the next 1´ to 2 years.
With regard to land use expectations, the draft Protocol Agreement
requires, as a pre-condition of LRT construction, that municipalities
along the line agree to accommodate GVRD housing "targets." This raises
several issues:
- While the GVRD has an agreed target for the "Urban Growth
Concentration Area," there are no agreed municipal targets.
Consequently, it is unclear what "target" municipalities are
expected to achieve to satisfy BC Transit ridership expectations.
It is also unclear what actions will constitute "a commitment."
Major rezoning activities can take longer than the 1´ to 2 years it
will take to decide whether to proceed with construction.
- The City's current zoning could accommodate an additional 100,000
people. This includes existing capacity for up to 10,000 units in
the LRT corridor. This is in addition to the 25,000 people who
already live immediately adjacent Broadway between Boundary and
Granville, and means upwards of 40,000 people could eventually live
close to the line.
City Plan is supportive of additional rapid transit within the
City. However, rapid transit could result in pressures to increase
densities along the Broadway LRT corridor. This has to be
considered in the context that CityPlan also proposes that new
housing initiatives focus on locating more housing in neighbourhood
centres to provide housing choice and access to services throughout
the City. The proposed CityPlan community visioning program
provides a way to consider opportunities for a new Neighbourhood
Centre on or close to the Broadway LRT. The LRT may prove to be a
catalyst to encourage the development of some new neighbourhood
centres.
- City Plan and the City's Industrial Lands Strategy propose
retaining remaining industrial lands for a variety of City-serving
activities. Industrial lands border part of the proposed Broadway
route. As such, they provide an employment destination that would
be well-served by the LRT. The Grandview/Boundary Industrial Area
has 7,000 jobs and with intensified use is expected to employ
10,000 to 15,000 people.
These existing land uses and adopted land use directions suggest that
the City's role in providing additional capacity along the LRT line may
be different from the other municipalities. Given our established land
use patterns, our understanding is the Province expects a significantly
higher housing commitment from the other four municipalities than from
Vancouver. However, our commitment will need to be agreed with the
Province and GVRD.
4. Public Consultation Process
In Vancouver the proposed line runs through well established
neighbourhoods including some intensely developed areas; in some cases
high density housing. The line also runs through the commercial area of
Central Broadway. The line will raise important issues for adjacent
residents and businesses.
No details are available about the public consultation process or funds
available for consultation and mitigation. The draft Protocol Agreement
suggests that the consultation process will emphasize mitigating
negative local impacts. When more information is available staff will
report to Council.
5. Staffing Implications
The development of LRT within the Broadway Corridor will have
significant staff requirements beyond current available resources. The
issue of funding the municipal staff needs has not yet been discussed
and will need to be reported back to Council. For example, the draft
Protocol Agreement suggests that each municipality will designate an
individual to be responsible for land use planning. This individual
would be responsible for developing and overseeing the work plan,
including public consultation for defining the land use and development
process.
This proposal raises two concerns:
- Experience with the SkyTrain planning program suggests that land
use planning around stations is a major initiative and will take
considerably more than one staff person to achieve.
With the SkyTrain program the Planning Department developed Station
Area Plans. This also involved extensive work on alignment and
mitigation of system impacts. In some station areas, land use
changes were oriented to reducing impacts rather than increasing
density. The SkyTrain system had four stations outside the
downtown and required 3.5 staff about five years to complete
alignment, mitigation, and land use plans. The Broadway LRT
anticipates ten stations in the City, in a much more crowded and
developed corridor.
When the program is clearer, a staffing proposal will be reported
to Council.
- The LRT offers tremendous potential to change the character of
Broadway. It will require significant urban design input to
develop a system that serves transportation needs and also enhances
the functions of Broadway as an urban place.
In anticipation of the potential issues which must be addressed,
staff are initiating reviews of other cities with similar LRT's.
The experiences of similar installations will provide a better
understanding of impacts, problems and opportunities for
successfully integrating the LRT system into the City. It will
also assist in developing a work program and estimating staff
resource needs.
CONCLUSION
There are many uncertainties that need resolving before the LRT project
begins in earnest. The magnitude of this project within the City and
the challenges facing the City and BC Transit are significant. As more
information comes available, staff will report to Council to seek
direction on governance, funding, staff needs, design, land use, and
public consultation programs.
* * * * *
MCAA\004-3472.COV