Parkhill Road closure drags on … plus more local news

You’re reading the September 3, 2024 edition of the Peterborough Currents email newsletter. To receive our email newsletters straight to your inbox, sign up here.

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Good morning and welcome to the Peterborough Currents newsletter, where we share our latest stories and catch you up on local news.

This week:

• Council votes on PATH rezoning for a final time tonight 
• The most common question we’re asked these days: “What’s up with Parkhill Road?”
• Board of health could call on federal government to institute basic income
• Brock Mission wants to build 50 new transitional housing units
• And more!

Let’s get to the news.

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PATH continues years-long effort to build sleeping cabin community

It’s a vision local volunteers have been working toward for years: building a sleeping cabin community to help alleviate homelessness in Peterborough.

Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes (PATH) has had cabins at the ready for years, but they’ve struggled to find a site where the city will allow them to be erected. 

PATH’s latest proposal is to build up to 24 sleeping cabins on a property the non-profit leases at 385 Lansdowne Street East. Their plan is to start with 10 cabins in time for this winter. The site would be operated by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Peterborough, the same agency that runs the city’s 50-unit sleeping cabin community on Wolfe Street.

But city councillors shot down the proposal last week, voting 8-2 against PATH’s request for a temporary zoning change that would allow the project to move forward. City staff had recommended approving the rezoning.

Mayor Jeff Leal was one of the eight members of council who opposed PATH’s request. Now, he says he’d like to look into using PATH’s cabins to expand the municipally-owned Wolfe Street modular housing community instead. “We want to take advantage of the work that they [PATH] have completed,” he said.

But PATH is still committed to its Lansdowne site. Board member Keith Dalton said he was “disgusted” with council’s vote last week. “We felt council was unjustly pandering to public opinion,” he said. Dalton said adding cabins to the Wolfe Street site won’t be enough to deal with the homelessness problem in Peterborough.

Leal acknowledged that there is a “need to house more people” as winter approaches. A recent report from One City Peterborough stated that its overnight shelter at the Trinity Centre was at capacity most nights last winter and had to turn people away hundreds of times.

Council will vote on PATH’s request for a zoning change for a final time tonight. Before the vote, catch up on the story so far — including why councillors initially rejected the proposal — with this new article by Currents reporter Brett Throop.

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Other stories to watch

BROCK MISSION PROPOSES 50-UNIT TRANSITIONAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

The Brock Mission wants to build a 50-unit transitional housing complex to alleviate homelessness in the coming years, the Peterborough Examiner reports. The charity plans to ask city council for $250,000 to put towards engineering, architectural, and site planning expenses. The goal is to access federal funding to pay for the construction itself, which is expected to cost at least $16 million. Full details, such as where the building will be located and a complete cost breakdown, have yet to be determined.

NEW TRANSIT SCHEDULES TAKE EFFECT TODAY

As the new school year starts, the city is adjusting its transit schedules. Most notably, they’re returning to higher frequency for routes that serve Peterborough’s post-secondary institutions. The city is also bringing back Route 11, which runs between downtown and Trent University but only operates during the school year. For a full list of the schedule changes taking effect, click here.

BOARD OF HEALTH TO CONSIDER A CALL FOR BASIC INCOME

Peterborough’s board of health could join other Ontario health units in calling for the federal government to support a guaranteed livable income. Several health units across the province have in recent months voiced support for Bills S-233 and C-223, which include a framework for developing a basic income for Canadians living in poverty. Peterborough’s board of health will consider writing to the Prime Minister and other parliamentary leaders to urge support for the bills at its meeting on Wednesday night. 

“Implementing a Livable Basic Income Guarantee would have a significant impact on addressing health inequities and supporting the health and wellbeing of vulnerable community members,” a report from Peterborough Public Health states. Peterborough’s medical officer of health Thomas Piggott recently spoke at a symposium that focused on the relationship between income and health, where he stated that “all roads to health lead through income.”

Peterborough Public Health has advocated for a basic income guarantee on several occasions in the past.

NINE SHIPS BICENTENARY WEBSITE LAUNCHES

Next year is the bicentenary of the 1825 migration that brought over 2,000 Irish settlers to Peterborough and the surrounding townships. A non-profit called Nine Ships has formed to organize commemorative events, and they’ve launched a new website exploring this history of the emigration. Check it out here.

PARKHILL ROAD CLOSURE DRAGS ON

It was quiet on Parkhill Road last week when Currents visited to check in on the status of the construction project that has closed the major east-west thoroughfare for more than a year. Traffic cones and road closure signs littered the street, and a few pieces of heavy machinery were parked on the pavement. But there were no workers present and no work being done, which has been typical throughout much of 2024.

By last winter, the major underground elements of the project — including the installation of new water mains and sewers — had been completed and the roadway was awaiting “finishing works” such as landscaping and surface paving, city spokesperson Brendan Wedley told Currents in March. Completion was expected in the summer, Wedley wrote at the time.

But the anticipated timelines were missed this summer as numerous days went by without construction crews present. “There has been some reduced works out there,” the city’s infrastructure commissioner Blair Nelson told councillors on June 27. But Nelson said crews were preparing to “remobilize” and begin work again during the week of July 3 in order to finish the project by the end of July or beginning of August.

Now, the city is offering a new estimation for completion: sometime this September.

Why all the delays? The city spokesperson provided some details to Currents last week. During construction, the city identified the need for additional work that wasn’t part of the original design, Wedley wrote. That included the installation of retaining walls to protect some properties that are along the corridor and additional work for soil management.

The city awarded the Parkhill reconstruction project in an open bid process in spring 2023. The lowest bidder, Trisan Construction, got the job. Trisan had bid $5.8 million for the project. The project is on-budget, Wedley stated.

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