Council rejects advisory committee’s concerns so public meetings about Mobility Master Plan roll on

A call to pause public input about London’s 25-year Mobility Master Plan was flatly rejected by council’s Strategic Priority and Policy Committee (SPPC).

The council-appointed Integrated Transportation Community Advisory Committee (ITCAC) recently recommended halting the collection of public feedback until its concerns about the plan were addressed.

However, following a delegation by a member of ITAC, Coun. Steve Lehman put forward a motion to receive the advisory committee’s report but take no action.

“I’m concerned about the comment made, quite frankly, to say that they were ignored, I believe that’s not true,” said Lehman.

He agreed with civic administration that efforts to complete the MMP on time must continue, including a number of public feedback sessions.

“This schedule is extremely important because there’s a need for us to be in a position to meet the Development Charge (DC) background studies, which requires us to have these this work done by the end of 2025,” explained Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, Kelly Scherr.

The ITCAC had warned in its report, “On reviewing the reports and presentations from the MMP team, various factual errors, contradictions, and gaps have been noted.

This casts doubt on the thoroughness and competence of any analysis that has not been shared with ITCAC or the public.”

Other criticisms

• “There is no evidence that the proposed plans will meet the CEAP (Climate Emergency Action Plan) climate targets.
• “There is nothing in the proposed plan that specifically addresses safety beyond a guiding principle.”
• “We are concerned that mode share targets appear to have been established in a somewhat arbitrary way with insufficient modeling, analysis, or comparison to more progressive cycling cities to establish the feasibility of more ambitious targets.”

Members of SPPC voted 11-3 (Ferreira, Trosow, Franke opposed) to receive the ITCAC report but take no action.

Council will make a final decision Jan. 21.

Public Input sessions about the Mobility Master Plan continue this week:

• Jan. 15 at Northbrae Public School, drop in from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• Jan. 16 at Cherryhill Village Mall, drop in from 6-8 p.m.