Transit terminal relocation issue returns to City Council

Sault Ste. Marie City Council will be asked Monday to proceed with finding a consultant to finish construction drawings for a transit terminal at the current bus barn location at 111 Huron Street.

Councillors will be asked approve a request for proposals for both the drawings and the resulting tendering process.

Almost 180 pages of reports about the $2 million relocation project have been placed on the agenda of Monday's City Council, with last-minute submissions expected from downtown businesses who've been denied permission to speak during the virtual meeting.

The existing downtown transit terminal at Dennis and Queen is seriously deteriorating, requires a new roof, poses washroom accessibility and barrier-free concerns and offers inadequate facilities for security and oversight functions.

It's said to require about $337,000 in maintenance and repairs over the next five years.

Cost of renovating the Queen-Dennis terminal to address the accessibility, washroom, and security is estimated at $671,500, and that doesn't include the needed roof replacement and heating/ventilation/air conditioning work.

Calculations done by city staff and Tulloch Engineering indicate the relocation would pay for itself in less that five years, with additional revenue possible from selling the Queen-Dennis site, should City Council decide to do that.

Tulloch and city staff are recommending the following:

• install a bus stop and shelter on Queen Street adjacent to the existing terminal
• extend available time patrons of Soo Greyhound games can wait within the heated area of the GFL Center lobby after games.
• review the location of bus stops on Queen Street west of Bruce Street and relocate as deemed appropriate to maintain service levels
• install a noise attenuation barrier along the south property line east of the Algoma Steel property at 111 Huron Street
• continue to advance the possibility of switching to an electric bus fleet to reduce green house gas emissions

"There are no proposed service level decreases related to this project," says Brent Lamming, the city's director of community services.

"There are currently 62 stops in the greater downtown area and 47 in the immediate core. Every hour, 26 buses travel throughout the downtown. No changes will be made to this service level," Lamming says.

Lamming concedes that some business owners expressed concern that moving the downtown terminal west on Queen Street would adversely affect establishments in the existing downtown core.

Others raised safety issues, pointing out that the traffic counts taken at the corner of Huron and Bay were done in November, 2020 in the middle of a pandemic.

But a ridership survey found that 60 per cent of transit users wouldn't avoid the downtown because of the proposed relocation.

"Of the 1.9 million riders who took transit in 2019, very few provided feedback that they were concerned with the move," Lamming said. "We received comments from two riders that have made written formal concerns and there was very little participation from riders at both environmental assessment meetings."

Tulloch Engineering discussed consultations with the local Downtown Association: "City staff and the consultant met with the Downtown Association directly to discuss the project. Prior to the meeting the DTA attempted to survey their membership to gauge their opinion. Due to a low response rate, the DTA deemed the survey inconclusive."

"Accordingly, the results of this survey were not shared with the study team prior to the public information sessions, nor were they subsequently used in this assessment. Following the stakeholder meeting, the DTA initiated a second survey of their membership. The second survey also garnered a low turnout with less than 25 per cent of the membership responding."

A scientifically conducted poll by SooToday/Village Media, counting City of Sault Ste. Marie-only votes on April 11, 2021, yielded the following results to the question: What should the city do with the Dennis Street bus terminal? 

• build a new terminal at the Sault Ste. Marie Transit Facility at 111 Huron Street - 124 votes
• rebuild it where it is at 160 Queen Street East - 656 votes
• build a new terminal somewhere else - 107 votes
• leave it as it is - 293 votes

Sample size was 1,180 votes, providing a 2.81 per cent margin of error based on local votes.

Monday's City Council meeting will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.