The city’s environmentally friendly plans to race forward on Phase II of bus rapid transit seems to have missed a stop — the environmental assessment.
Endangered leopard frogs could live in the area slated for the reroute, said Parker Wetlands Conservation co-chair Cal Dueck.
“There’s a really good chance they’re there — not for sure, because no environmental assessment has been done.” He said there could be tall grass prairie, too — and it’s illegal to destroy either, or any type of protected animals and plants.
University of Winnipeg civic politics professor Christopher Leo said that’s not all that was skipped over.
“Even those who consider environmental assessments to be nothing more than make-work for unemployed social science graduates should be alarmed at a transportation project that lacks secure funding, has not given due consideration to congestion issues, and breezes unconcernedly past potential legal and political issues,” Leo wrote in a blog post.
The expected cost of the project is $292 million, with a target date for completion being 2018. The city is hoping the project will be cost-shared with the province, but a deal has yet to be made.
This isn’t the first time the city has put the plan before the planning, Leo said.
“The city, when they plan to do a major development, before they decide where they’re going with it, they need to have some of the major problems resolved,” he told the Sun.
Fort Rouge Coun. Jenny Gerbasi said the city needs to make a decision — soon — in order to secure funding.
“There does need to be a lot more study, but at some point we have to make a decision,” she said.
“The thing is, the green space the people are concerned with is already in the hands of a developer. It’s already slated for development. So the focus needs to be on a proper planning process for the land.”
Dueck said when the land was given to the developer, the contract required a secondary consultation before earth was moved.
“Whether they’ll listen to their own laws or not, that’s hard to say,” Dueck said.
The proposed route, called 1B, hugs Parker Avenue but largely stays out of the wetland.
Route 1A goes through more green space.
The third option, Route 2 down Pembina Highway, doesn’t allow for active transporation, Gerbasi said.
“When it was first thought of 30 years ago, that wasn’t an issue,” she said. “There’s a lot of crossings as well. And there would be a huge amount of expropriation. Plus the cost of all that.”
But, Dueck asks, what about the bike lanes the city just built on Pembina?
“That’s kind of weird, right?”
Read the original story here: https://winnipegsun.com/2013/02/11/rapid-transit-rush-bad-for-the-environment/wcm/a4871bc7-756a-4063-8b67-d447c49ca447