City hall committee kills rogue engineers’ plan to expropriate homes to build road

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This article was published 31/10/2017 (2912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of south Charleswood residents packed city hall’s council gallery Tuesday to watch a civic committee kill a proposed east-west corridor route that would have resulted in the expropriation and demolition of many of their homes.

The gallery erupted in applause as councillors on the public works committee unanimously voted to permanently eliminate the proposed Sterling Lyon Parkway extension as an option for consideration.

Earlier during the meeting, the city’s chief administration officer said the project had been riddled with mistakes by both city staff and an engineering consulting firm, and promised a review of the actions taken by individuals who worked on the project.

Coun. Marty Morantz, chairman of the committee and the Charleswood-area ward councillor, condemned the actions of the city engineering team and the engineering consulting firm, and demanded both be removed from the project.

“I want the individuals from the City of Winnipeg who are on this file, the engineers on this file, to be removed,” Morantz told reporters during a break in the meeting, explaining that he and the community had lost their trust in the city’s engineering team.

Morantz said the actions of the consulting firm WSP Canada warranted the termination of their contract.

“Circumventing the will of council is what’s happened on this file,” Morantz said.

City hall had engaged engineering consulting firm WSP Canada in December 2014 to help city staff develop options for the southward expansion of the William R. Clement Parkway and to study a possible east-west corridor linking the Clement Parkway to Kenaston Boulevard, part of the city’s long-term plan to complete the inner-ring road network.

Three options had been presented to area residents at an open house in January 2016, and residents overwhelmingly favoured twinning Wilkes. However, WSP, apparently on its own initiative, developed a fourth option — the southwest extension of Sterling Lyon Parkway that cuts a wide swath through several rural-like residential areas — and made an application to the conservation department in July 2017 for an environmental review.

Documents on the city’s website show the Wilkes option is considered more favourable by city staff, as it involved affecting a fewer number of private properties and was considered less expensive to construct than the other two options.

In early October, area residents were shocked to be told by WSP and engineers from the city’s public works department that the Sterling Lyon Parkway extension had been chosen as the east-west route and would be presented to council early in the new year for approval. At a series of meetings, residents were told they could either sell their property to city hall or have it expropriated later. The city had identified 96 properties where the new route would cross.

The residents had prepared for Wednesday’s meeting: they incorporated as a non-profit community group; lobbied CAO Doug McNeil, Morantz and other councillors; consulted former ward Coun. Paula Havixbeck; and hired a lawyer to advise them.

The meeting had been moved from a committee room to the larger council chambers to accommodate the number of area residents.

David Ames, president of community group the South Wilkes Community Association, told the committee that contrary to what the administration has told councillors, the Sterling Lyon route is more expensive as it’s longer, will cost more to construct and more properties will be have to be bought or expropriated.

Ames said the residents felt betrayed and had been misled by both city staff and its consultant, adding that the values of their homes had decreased because of the plan that would see many of their homes expropriated and demolished, while others would see a four-lane roadway built through their backyards and neighbourhoods.

Following the committee vote on the project, Ames said Wednesday’s vote is only the first hurdle for the residents, adding they still have to convince council to kill the Sterling Lyon route.

“I’m just thankful that rational minds and a reasonable approach were shown today,” Ames said.

WSP and city staff had circumvented the approval process and withheld key information from residents, the general public and councillors, Morantz said.

While Morantz said he’s prepared to reject one route over another without knowing the relevant costs, he said it’s more important that due process be followed, adding that he could never support the Sterling Lyon route because of the destruction it would cause to the area neighbourhoods.

“I’m 100 per cent behind the residents on this project. Whoever thought it made sense to run a road through people’s properties in a residential neighbourhood… is just a terrible idea,” he said.

Richard Tebinka, the WSP manager for the Clement Parkway extension project, said he had been instructed by city hall not to talk to the media and declined to answer any questions.

CAO Doug McNeil told the committee that WSP erred in submitting the application to the conservation department without first presenting the proposal to the community for feedback or to council for approval. McNeil also faulted city staff for presenting the Sterling Lyon Parkway route as the chosen corridor and holding discussions about possible expropriations.

“I’m not happy with how this public process unfolded,” McNeil said. “I’m not happy with the fact we had a serious misstep in this process… The typical process is when you have some new information that the public has not seen before, is to take it back to the public.”

McNeil turned from the committee and, in breach of council protocol, spoke directly to the residents in the gallery and apologized to them.

“I do truly apologize on behalf of the public service,” McNeil said.

Under questioning from Morantz, McNeil refused to say he would discipline city staff or fire WSP. McNeil said he has put the entire project on hold and is considering what action, if any, should be taken against WSP and the city engineers leading the project.

McNeil’s explanation of WSP’s actions differed from what Morantz said he had been told by the acting director of public works. McNeil said WSP developed the Sterling Lyon Parkway route in conjunction with city staff and city staff were aware of the WSP’s application for an environmental review. Morantz said he had been told public works staff were unaware that WSP had developed a new route or that it had gone to the province for an environmental review.

McNeil later explained WSP’s decision to develop the fourth route and submit it to the province for an environmental review as a mistake.

“They made a mistake. They admitted it. They shouldn’t have made that application at that time,” McNeil told the committee.

Morantz said WSP’s actions simply couldn’t be dismissed as “a mistake,” adding the firm pretended to gather public feedback on three known options while covertly preparing a case for the Sterling Lyon route.

“It tells us they decided what the route was going to be… they had made up their minds, they had gone out and spent who knows how much (on a 300-page report, a separate study and an environmental-review application),” Morantz said. “I’m very, very disappointed with our consultants on this issue.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca