ICYMI: Grand Trunk committee begins generating early design principles

In case you missed it. This article was previously published on StratfordToday. 

It's still early days for the ad-hoc Grand Trunk renewal committee, though the group is working on formulating guiding principles for the development of the “generational” project that the City of Stratford has undertaken.

At Tuesday night’s committee meeting, Emily Robson, corporate initiative lead for the city, led members in a “generative conversation” taking ideas and organizing them. 

Some of the ideas discussed were not grouped together because they were easily paired but rather were opposed to each other. 

Financial responsibility was top of mind for many committee members, who spoke about long-term sustainability and revenue generation.

At the same time, being “net-zero” or being environmentally friendly was also discussed at length. As Paul Parlee, a committee member, said, that could be difficult to marry with the financial side of things. 

Additionally, expediting the process and having a phased approach were grouped together as they are seemingly at odds. 

As Robson said, the point of the exercise was to generate ideas and group those ideas to further generate conversation.

“This is hard work,” Robson said. “But this is how we’re going to bring everyone’s ideas and we’re combining it all.” 

The committee will be splitting into groups to properly name the categories for the next meeting, which will be draft development principles. 

In addition to financial/environmental sustainability and having an expedited or phased approach, being a state-of-the-art design, being a mixed-use project which reflects the needs of the community, having a mix of market and affordable housing were also among the topics discussed. 

All of the ideas and their categories will be reviewed by Melanie Hare and the vision, planning, and architecture working group, which she chairs. 

Although seven total categories were brainstormed, the discussion was preliminary and more categories or different categories may be further developed. 

John Kastner, co-chair of the communication, advocacy, and civic engagement working group with Andrew Hilton, gave the committee an overview of what they have been working on: a list of FAQs on the site and its long development history.

“We put together speaking points,” Kastner said. “In the event that it comes up in Tim Hortons, that it comes up in Balzac’s …. somebody comes up to you and says, for example, ‘why don't you tear the place down? Or what's happening there?’”

There were 40 FAQs Kastner and team developed, with questions varying from who actually controls the Grand Trunk property to how can the site be used for the challenges the city faces? 

Bottom-line for many of these questions, Kastner said, it is still early days, the site is developable, and that the cost, which was estimated to be between $600 and $800 million in a 2018 report, is a factor, but there are many opportunities ahead for the city. 

“This came up in the last few days,” Kastner said. “‘The city can’t afford this - $600 million, $800 million, who knows - the city can’t afford this.’ We can tell people that there's no scenario, nor has there ever been a scenario, suggesting the city undertakes this in whole. It’ll be done with partners, it can be done with not-for-profit partners, it will be done with for-profit partners. There is a myriad of opportunities here.”

City of Stratfrd CAO Joan Thomson confirmed that the FAQs and their respective answers were circulated amongst staff and have been extensively vetted. 

The FAQs will become the basis of a future website, which will be a central hub of information on the Grand Trunk and its development.  

Committee member Andy Bicanic asked that the question regarding the soil contamination on the site be reviewed. 

The answer provided in the draft said that there is some contaminated soil that is common in post-industrial land, but through remediation the site is developable. Bicanic said that another report indicated that to remove and replace the soil was not a feasible approach. 

After Kastner confirmed that would be looked at by staff before the answers were finalized, the committee voted to approve the FAQs. 

There are two upcoming public meetings planned. The first is currently scheduled for March 26 and is meant to get the public up to speed on the project.

April 13 is the tentative date for the second public meeting, meant to allow for community members to bring ideas or experiences developing similar sites to the ad-hoc committee. 

The next committee meeting is planned for March 18. All meetings, unless otherwise stated, take place in council chambers of city hall at 7 p.m.. The meetings will also be available online.