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July 22, 2011 OUR REF: TO3077TOU00 BY EMAIL: dspillenaar@springcress.com Springcress Properties Inc. 200-6 Gurdwara Road Nepean, ON K2E 8A3 Attention: Mr. David Spillenaar Dear Sir:

Re: 450 Churchill Mixed-Use Development

Transportation Overview 1.0 PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT From the Site Plan provided, it is our understanding that the above-noted development proposal entails some building demolition/replacement and conversion of the Westboro United Church into Bluesfest offices/community space. The proposed Site Plan is provided as Figure 1 and it is comprised of the following uses:

2300 ft2 of Bluesfest office in the former church loft; 3600 ft2 of general office in the former church ground floor; 3100 ft2 of community space in the former church basement; 16 residential townhouse condominium units; 4 live/work condominium units; 24 below-grade parking spaces, for use by site condominium occupants, with its

ramp connection provided to the adjacent Churchill Avenue. 2.0 SITE CONTEXT As shown in Figure 2, the site is located at the southwest corner of the Churchill/Ravenhill intersection. It is currently occupied by the Westboro United Church and a number of related two storey buildings. Adjacent properties to the west and south are predominantly single family homes. Adjacent properties across Churchill Avenue to the east are a mix of commercial and residential uses. Adjacent to the north across Ravenhill Avenue is the Churchill Alternative Public School. The Churchill Alternative Public School is somewhat unique in that it promotes “active transportation” (walking and cycling) for those attending/working at the school. It is one of 12 schools across Ottawa participating in “School Travel Planning” which is a City of Ottawa Pilot project.

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Figure 1: Site Plan

To assist and help promote the school’s active transportation program, the City has placed various restrictions on Ravenhill Avenue to eliminate traffic on Ravenhill Avenue, between Churchill Avenue and Edison Avenue, during the school’s busy start and end time periods (7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.). This section of Ravenhill Avenue is considered the school’s entry/exit front and these traffic restrictions create an auto-free zone (except for buses and emergency vehicles) during these busy times.

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Figure 2: Site Context

Because of the foregoing, the school has great interest in the proposed redevelopment and its potential traffic impact. As such, the school has concerns as to the location of the site driveway connection to the proposed below-grade garage. Given the above-noted traffic restrictions, locating this connection on the adjacent local streets is likely not a good

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solution and a Churchill Avenue location is likely preferred, subject to addressing traffic operation issues. 3.0 SCOPE OF WORK In our initial discussions with Arun Singh of the City, it was agreed that because of the proposed development’s very low peak hour traffic generation, (well less than 75 vph), no traffic impact analysis was required, however, because of issues regarding garage access location and neighbourhood parking impacts, a brief Transportation Overview focussing on these topics would be prepared. This Overview is provided herein. 4.0 EXISTING STUDY AREA CONDITIONS The adjacent section of Churchill Avenue is a two-lane “major collector”. A sidewalk exists on the west side adjacent to the site and wide on-street parking lanes exist on both sides of the street. Bus routes #150 and #187 run on Churchill Avenue with stops in the immediate vicinity of the subject site. There is no cycling designation for Churchill Avenue, however, Byron Avenue a block to the north is designated a “community cycling route”. The surrounding two-lane local residential streets include Ravenhill Avenue adjacent to the north, Edison Avenue adjacent to the west, Melbourne Avenue one street to the west and Kenwood Avenue one street to the south. Regarding sidewalks, Ravenhill Avenue has them on both sides, Edison Avenue has an east side sidewalk only, Melbourne Avenue and Kirkwood Avenue have none. With regard to on-street parking, with the exception of the aforementioned Ravenhill Avenue restrictions, 3-hour parking is permitted on all adjacent streets as summarized in Figure 3. In total, in the immediate area bounded by Ravenhill Avenue, Melbourne Avenue, Kenwood Avenue and Churchill Avenue, there is room between driveways for approximately 100 parking spaces. 5.0 SITE TRAFFIC GENERATION The proposed development is a very low traffic generator, particularly during the weekday commuter peak hours. Using a combination of vehicle trip rates from the ITE Trip Generation manual and first principles analysis, weekday peak hour site traffic generation is summarized as follows. Table 1: Projected Peak Hour Site Traffic Generation

Land Use Vehicles per Hour

morning peak hour afternoon peak hour In Out Total In Out Total

16 residential condos (Code 231) 3 8 11 8 4 12 4 live/work condos* 1 1 2 1 1 2 5900 ft2 office** 8 3 11 3 7 10 3100 ft2 community space 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total 12 12 24 12 12 24 * Worst case estimated ** First principles

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Figure 3: On-Street Parking Supply/Restrictions

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Site traffic generation of approximately 24 vph two-way total during commuter peak hours is well below the City’s trigger (75 vph) for requiring a traffic study. Accordingly, this document is called a Transportation Overview and it focuses only on the relevant site-specific transportation-related concerns. It is noteworthy that the church building will be severed from the balance of the site and the underground parking will be for use only by the condo and live/work residents. As such, the garage will only generate approximately 13 vph to 14 vph (say 15 vph maximum) with the other site-generated traffic parking on-street. With regard to the approximate 3100 ft2 of basement community space, its traffic generation is dependent on the function it is being used for. It is expected that its community use would be predominantly evenings and weekends when adjacent street traffic is much less than during commuter peak hours. The ITE Trip Generation Manual (8th Edition) does not specifically contain this land use, but it does contain “Recreational Community Centre” (Code 495) which can include classes, daycare, meeting rooms and various sporting activities. Its maximum peak hour trip generation rate is less than 3 veh per 1000 ft2. At this rate, a 3100 ft2 community facility would generate approximately 10 vph two-way total. This volume will vary up and down depending on the specific community use. It will often be 0 as the space will regularly not be used. It could on occasion increase to the 20 to 40 vehicle range if there was an important community-related meeting being held. 6.0 PARKING Based on the information provided, the City of Ottawa Zoning By-Law parking requirements for the proposed land uses require 16 spaces and a total of 24 are proposed in a one level below-grade parking garage. As such, the City’s By-law parking requirements are met. This amount of parking is sufficient for the residents of the project, with visitors and employees within the church building having to park on-street. The project’s office component will require two bicycle parking spaces, potentially provided in the garage. As previously noted, there are in the order of one hundred (100) 3-hour on-street parking spaces available within a short distance of the site, thus there will be no issue with regard to total area parking supply for day-to-day use. The biggest off-site parking generator will be the basement community space, when it is used on evenings and weekends for community activities/meetings. Many residents will walk or cycle to these events, however, as noted, as a worst case scenario, on occasion there could be demand for 20 to 40 parking spaces. The on-street parking supply on the adjacent streets can adequately accommodate this demand. While this amount of off-site parking demand will generate off-peak traffic volumes on adjacent local streets that is greater than what is currently experienced, it is still a very low volume spread out over a number of streets.

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7.0 GARAGE ACCESS/EGRESS Because of the traffic concerns (and related turn restrictions) of the Churchill Alternative Public School, and the desire to minimize site traffic impacts on local residential streets, the Site Plan proposes the garage connection to Churchill Avenue. A total of 24 parking spaces are proposed and they would be served by an approximate 3.7 m wide shared two-way ramp located mid-site approximately 25 m south of the Ravenhill intersection. Design details of the ramp are depicted in Attachment A. A summary of these details follows.

Mid-ramp slopes of 14% to 17% with 6% transition slopes at the top and bottom of the ramp;

A short distance (approximately 8 feet) of 2% slope between the top of ramp and the property line;

Approximately 2.5 feet of buffer between the property line and the sidewalk followed by a 6.3 foot wide sidewalk and an adjacent 8.5 foot wide parking area; and

The resultant total separation from the top of ramp to the southbound traffic lane on

Churchill Avenue is 17.3 feet, or approximately 5.3 m. To assist in understanding the foregoing, a picture of Churchill Avenue adjacent to the subject site (looking south) is included as Attachment B. With regard to garage ramp operation and its street interface, it is noteworthy, that worst case scenario the garage is projected to generate approximately 15 vph two-way total, or 1 vehicle every 4 minutes on average during the morning and afternoon peak hours. During all other hours of the day, garage-generated traffic would be less. As depicted on the Site Plan, adjacent to the north of the garage ramp is an approximate 18 foot (5.4 m) wide open space leading to the courtyard. This open space plus the approximate 17 feet (5.3 m) of distance from the property line to the southbound traffic lane will result in very good visibility for drivers exiting the garage. To provide even greater visibility and to provide some space for inbound vehicles to pull into if there is a vehicle exiting the garage at the same time, it is recommended that there be “No Stopping/No Parking” within approximately 7 m either side of the garage entry/exit ramp. The only issue with the proposed ramp location/design is related to the infrequent times when vehicles are wanting to exit and enter the garage at the same time. This is not an issue for outbound vehicles as they can wait on-site at the bottom of the ramp if there is an inbound vehicle at the top of the ramp or midway down the ramp. It is also not an issue if there is an outbound vehicle coming up the ramp and a southbound vehicle on Churchill Avenue is wanting to turn right to enter the garage. The southbound vehicle can wait in its lane until the vehicle exits the ramp and enters the Churchill Street traffic flow, or it can pull into the “No Stopping/No Parking” area adjacent to the ramp.

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The one movement that is somewhat of a concern is a vehicle travelling northbound on Churchill Avenue wanting to turn left into the garage. This vehicle may have already started its left-turn movement across the southbound traffic lane when it realizes there is an exiting vehicle approaching the top of the ramp. In this instance, the inbound vehicle will have to pull into the “No Stopping/No Parking” area at 90° to allow the exiting vehicle to do so before the entering vehicle can then enter the ramp. This infrequent occurrence is less than ideal and would cause a brief delay to southbound traffic flow to Churchill Avenue. The alternatives would be a minimum 6 m wide ramp to Churchill Avenue, which would cause the loss of one residential unit, or relocation of the ramp to another street. Given the aforementioned traffic flow restrictions on Ravenhill Avenue, should the City wish to consider an alternative garage access/egress location, it would most likely have to be to Edison Avenue. The implication being that one of the proposed Edison residential units would have to flip to Churchill Avenue and all site garage-generated traffic would use Edison Avenue to connect to Churchill Avenue and other area street. This volume would be approximately 15 vph two-way total, or one new vehicle every 4 minutes on average during peak hours. It is our opinion that this garage-generated traffic could easily be accommodated with little impact on Edison Avenue. In percentage terms, it would likely be a significant increase given the likely low existing volumes, however, in absolute terms it is not considered a significant increase. 8.0 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS Based on the foregoing analysis of the proposed site development at 450 Churchill Avenue, the findings and conclusions of this Transportation Overview are as follows.

a. The proposed site redevelopment is projected to generate approximately 24 vph two-way total, therefore, in accordance with the City’s Transportation Impact Assessment Guidelines, the Site Plan application does not require any traffic analysis. Regardless, this Transportation Overview has been provided to assist in the Site Plan Review process.

b. The project’s underground garage of 24 spaces is only available to the condo and live/work residents. Employees of the proposed office uses within the church will have to park on-street if they drive to work. As such, the peak hour traffic generation of the garage is only 15 vph two-way total, or one new vehicle every four minutes, on average during the morning and afternoon peak hours. All other hours of the day, site-generated traffic will be less.

c. The garage’s access/egress is proposed via a one-lane wide ramp. Width aside, its design is considered acceptable (grades and transitions) resulting in good visibility at both the top and bottom of the ramp.

d. To further improve visibility and operation at the top of the proposed ramp connection to Churchill Avenue, it is recommended that “No Stopping/No Parking” restrictions be implemented for a distance of 7 m on either side of the ramp.

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e. Given the low vehicle generation of the garage, a one-way ramp will work well the significant majority of the time. The only potentially problematic conflict would be when a vehicle is exiting the garage at the same time a vehicle travelling northbound on Churchill Avenue wants to turn left from Churchill Avenue into the garage. In this instance, the left-turning vehicle on Churchill Avenue would have to either wait in the Churchill northbound lane until the ramp is clear, or if the vehicle has already commenced its turn, it would have to pull forward into the “No Stopping/No Parking” area to wait until the ramp is clear. Should this operation be problematic to the City, the options are to make the ramp wider to accommodate two-way traffic (lose 1 condo unit) or to locate it at the rear of the site to Edison Avenue (an additional 15 vph during morning and afternoon peak hours on Edison Avenue). This traffic increase on Edison Avenue is likely high in percentage terms compared to existing volumes, but it is low in absolute terms at one new vehicle every 4 minutes on average during peak hours, and significantly less for all other hours of the day.

f. Employees/visitors of the proposed reuse of the church (office and community space) will have to park on-street if they drive to the site. There are approximately 100, 3-hour on-street parking spaces within a one block distance from the site. This parking supply is considered sufficient to accommodate all daytime and evening parking demand associated with both daytime and evening use of the new church uses, with there being a significant amount of on-street parking still being available to others.

Based on the foregoing, subject to agreement on the most appropriate location/design of the proposed garage ramp, the Site Plan is recommended from a transportation perspective. Please call if you have any questions of the foregoing. Sincerely, Ronald M. Jack, P.Eng. Vice President Transportation Manager Ottawa Operations

Attachment A: Proposed Ramp Profile

Attachment B: Churchill Avenue looking South Adjacent to the Subject Site