1223 Michael Street, Suite 100, Ottawa, Ontario K1J 7T2 Tel: 613.738.4160 ● Fax: 613.739.7105 www.delcan.com February 24, 2014 OUR REF: TO1190TOZ00 BY EMAIL: [email protected] University of Ottawa Physical Resources Service 141 Louis-Pasteur Private Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Attention: Mr. Ian Kennedy Project Leader and Project Manager Dear Sir: RE: Henderson Avenue Student Residence Building Transportation Overview 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF WORK The above-noted University of Ottawa proposed Student Residence building, located on a vacant portion of a lot and fronting onto Henderson Avenue, is proposed to be a 4-storey building containing 81 units and no on-site parking. The Site Plan is provided as Figure 1 and a “unit” is defined in the City’s Zoning By-Law 2008-250 as “a room, or a suite of rooms, that constitutes a separate, independent residential occupancy, but which is not selfcontained and requires access to other parts of the building” (Section 54). As part of the Site Plan Application, the City requires the appropriate type of transportation study. As the proposed development will generate less than 75 vph, which is the City’s trigger for requiring traffic analysis, we are advised that the City requires only a brief Transportation Overview. As there is no traffic impact, the Overview would focus on the pedestrian, bicycle and loading aspects of the Site Plan and the parking supply on the campus as a whole. 2.0 TRAFFIC AND PARKING ANALYSIS As no parking is proposed on-site, the site’s traffic generation will be minimal. It will be limited to resident drop-off/pick-ups, service and delivery vehicles, and visitors who will park on-street if spaces are available. As the units will be fully-furnished, the movein/move-out requirements will be minimal. On a peak hour basis, site-generated traffic will therefore be very low, likely see less than 10 vph, and as there is not site garage access, no further traffic impact analysis is required. With regard to parking, none is proposed. This is because of a combination of the need/demand for student parking at on-campus residence buildings is very low, plus the University currently has a surplus of parking supply within its boundaries. Page 2 Figure 1: Site Plan Page 3 Based on the recent Fall 2013 parking supply/demand study undertaken by Daniel Spence of the University’s Parking and Sustainable Transportation department, of the total 2266 parking spaces available on the Downtown and Lees campuses (both on-street, surface and in parking lots/garages) during the highest period of usage (11:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm. on a weekday), the average utilization was at 83.3%. This meant that 16.7% of parking spaces (422 spaces) were empty and available for use. As the campus is treated as one site for parking supply/demand purposes, as per Zoning By-Law exception [784], any parking demand associated by the proposed residence building can very clearly be accommodated by the available surplus parking supply. With regard to the adjacent on-street parking, it is located only on one side of Henderson Avenue, with it switching sides at approximately mid-block. On the south half of the block adjacent to the majority of the site, the parking (1 hour, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday) is on the west side of the street. On the north half of the block it switches over to the east side. The transition is controlled by curb extensions with the concept of introducing this “chicane” being part of the Sandy Hill Traffic Calming Plan. The total existing parking supply on this one block of Henderson Avenue is approximately 17 spaces, comprised of 11 spaces on the west side and 6 spaces on the east side. The east side has fewer spaces because of the number of driveways. With the adjacent Advanced Research Complex (ARC) building and the proposed Student Residence building having a shared loading driveway at the south end of the Residence building, some on-street parking spaces will be lost. As it would also be desirable to have a pick-up/drop-off area at the front door of the proposed Student Residence building, an approximately 12 m long “15-min loading” zone would remove another 2 spaces, with the result being 8 parking spaces being available (currently 11 spaces) along the west curb of Henderson Avenue. 3.0 LOADING AND WASTE COLLECTION Adjacent to the south end of the subject site, a 4.0 m wide paved lane connects Henderson Avenue to the rear of both the proposed Residence building and the ARC building. Once past the Student Residence building, the driveway widens to a 6.0 m wide loading area. This loading area also connects to the ARC’s waste collection area which has its access/egress through the ARC building to connect to Templeton Street. The Student Residence building also has a rear door that is connected to the loading area and waste collection area via an on-site sidewalk. This connection accommodates resident movements to/from the building and the loading area as well as the movement of garbage from the Student Residence building to the ARC’s waste pick-up area. This shared-use of the ARC’s waste collection facility is possible as both buildings are owned by the University. It is noteworthy that, as the backyard sidewalk extends to the loading area, a continuous paved path to the municipal sidewalk along Henderson Avenue is provided. As such, the Student Residence building’s front door and loading area also have good pedestrian linkage. Page 4 We have also been advised by the project’s landscape architect that the existing municipal sidewalk adjacent to the site is only approximately 1.5 m wide and that consideration is been given to widening it to between 1.8 m and 2.0 m. 4.0 BICYCLE ACCOMMODATION Indoor bicycle parking is proposed within a room located at the northeast corner of the proposed building. A minimum of 25 bicycle parking spaces are proposed. As the Zoning By-Law 2008-250 requirement is 0.25 spaces/unit, this requirement is exceeded. 5.0 FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the foregoing analysis, the findings, conclusions and recommendations of this Transportation Overview follow: As the proposed 81-unit Student Residence building is centrally located within the campus and has no on-site parking, it will generate far less than 75 vph and therefore requires no traffic analysis as per the City’s Transportation Impact Assessment Guidelines; There will be some resident and visitor parking demand associated with the proposed building. On-street parking on Henderson Avenue is available, and overall within the campus there is a significant amount of surplus available public parking during the peak parking periods. The University’s recent Fall 2013 parking supply/demand data indicates that during the weekday peak period, there are 422 unused parking spaces available. During the rest of the day and on weekends, the campus’ parking space availability increases significantly; Review of the proposed loading and waste pick-up reveals that it is adequately accommodated. In addition, the creation of a 10 m to 12 m long “15-min loading” zone outside the building’s front door could provide a convenient pick-up/drop-off area for the building; The Zoning By-Law 2008-250 minimum requirements for bicycle parking is exceeded; and If possible, the existing 1.5 m sidewalk across the building frontage will be widened to between 1.8 m and 2.0 m. Based on the foregoing, the Site Plan for the proposed Henderson Avenue Student Residence building is recommended from a transportation perspective. Sincerely, Ronald M. Jack, P.Eng. Vice President Transportation Manager Ottawa Operations
© Copyright 2024 ExpyDoc