1. CONROY Public Works Facility

Installation de Travaux publics du chemin Conroy

committee recommendations as amended

That Council approve:

1. The increase of the capital authority for Heatherington Building Replacement (Conroy Development Plan) from $4.64 M to $11.64 M to allow for the construction of a Public Works facility at 3100 Conroy Road that will replace the existing facility at 1770 Heatherington Road; and,

2. The transfer of $7.0 M of tax supported debenture financing from Capital Project Maple Grove Facility Works Operation to Capital Project Heatherington Building Replacement (Conroy Development Plan).

3. Receive the staff memo dated 3 March 2009 to this report

Recommandations modifié du comité

Que le Conseil approuver:

1. L’augmentation de l’autorisation de dépenses d’immobilisations pour le remplacement de l’édifice Heatherington (plan d’aménagement de Conroy) de 4,64 M$ à 11,64 M$ afin de permettre l’aménagement d’une installation pour Travaux publics au 3100, chemin Conroy qui remplacera l’installation actuelle située au 1770, chemin Heatherington;

2. Le transfert de 7 M$ comme financement sous forme de débentures soutenu par les taxes à partir du projet d’immobilisations de l’installation de dépôt Maple Grove vers le projet d’immobilisation du remplacement de l’édifice Heatherington (plan d’aménagement de Conroy).

3. Prenne connaissance de la note de service du personnel en date du 3 mars 2009 qui accompagne le présent rapport.

Documentation

1. Deputy City Manager, City Operations report dated 25 February 2009 (ACS2009-COS-PWS-0005).

2. General Manager, Public Works Memo dated 3 March 2009

3. Extract of Draft Minute 29, 4 March 2009

Report to/Rapport au :

Transportation Committee

Comité des transports

and Council / et au Conseil

25 February 2009 / le 25 février 2009

Submitted by/Soumis par:

Steve Kanellakos, Deputy City Manager / Directeur municipal adjoint

City Operations / Opérations municipales

Contact Person/Personne ressource:

John Manconi, General Manager /directeur générale, Public Works/Travaux Publics

(613) 580-2424, extension/poste 21110, John.Manconi@ottawa.ca

Ward 10 Ref N°: ACS2009-COS-PWS-0005

SUBJECT:	CONROY Public Works Facility

OBJET :	Installation de Travaux publics du chemin Conroy

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Transportation Committee recommends that Council approve:

RECOMMENDATIONS DU RAPPORT

Que le Comité des transports recommandent au Conseil d’approuver:

BACKGROUND

The Surface Operations Branch has been actively reviewing operational practices and service delivery models for the past several years. Facility rationalization and consolidation has been an intricate component of the Branch review. On 23 May 2007, Council approved a report (ACS2007-PWS-SOP-0003) seeking approval of a long-range plan for Facility and Property Rationalization & Consolidation. Contained in the report was an outline for a project entitled Heatherington Road Replacement. This project involved the complete replacement of the Public Works facility at 1770 Heatherington Road. The project was originally estimated at $5.5 M, and was approved in the 2007 Capital Budget with $4.64 M allotted to facilitate the design and construction of a replacement facility.

Reduction in Capital envelope, escalation in construction costs, inflation, requirement of site servicing and amenities and the need to accommodate growth pressures has impacted the original project estimate. The revised project estimate to complete the new facility at 3100 Conroy Road is $11.4 M. Increased authority of $7.0 M is required to commence with the relocation of the works garage from 1770 Heatherington Road to 3100 Conroy Road.

DISCUSSION

The Surface Operations Branch has committed funds to construct a new facility at 3100 Conroy Road. The new site will replace an existing works yard at 1770 Heatherington Road. The decision to relocate work sites is based on the opportunity to disengage from Heatherington so the property can be sold and redeveloped. Advantages of moving work sites include the following:

Ø 1770 Heatherington is situated in a residential area that would be available for development. Area residents have raised concerns for many years about noise and heavy equipment traffic in and out of the works yard and would likely endorse the relocation of an “industrial” type facility from their neighbourhood;

Ø Disengagement from Heatherington allows for the potential revenue from the disposition of the existing parcel of land. The expected revenue from property disposal is expected to be $3.5M;

Ø Concept plans for the redevelopment of the Heatherington Road site include the construction of approximately 200+ townhouses. Once the Heatherington Road site is fully developed long-term revenue will be achieved through property taxes. Estimated yearly revenue from property taxes is estimated to be $300,000 per year. This equates to a Net Present Value of $5M. The efficiencies from this initiative will be directed to the corporate facility rationalization efficiency target;

Ø The 3100 Conroy Road site is a City owned property that is currently used for a snow disposal facility and a water tower. Adding the Public Works facility will allow for the full utilization of the existing property; and,

Ø 3100 Conroy Road site is centrally located in a growing service area, access and egress from the site is available at a signalized intersection and allows for easy access to major arterials such as Conroy Road, Walkley Road and Hunt Club Road.

Surface Operations has an approved Capital Project (Ref. No. ACS2007-BTS-RPN-0006) for the reconstruction and consolidation of a facility located at 1655 Maple Grove Road. The project authority is $10.8M for design and construction of the new garage. Construction was expected to start in 2009.

The 1655 Maple Grove Road site is located within the boundaries of the Kanata West Development Plan. Council has imposed a moratorium on all planned construction within the Kanata West Development lands due to a revised Ministry of Environment Assessment for review of the Carp River flood plain. Given the delay of this project and unknown restrictions that could result from a revised Environmental Assessment, the Branch is proposing a transfer of $7M from the Maple Grove Project to the Conroy Road construction plan. The Department will resubmit a budget request in the 2010 Budget for the construction requirements of the Maple Grove facility.

CONSULTATION

Public consultation was conducted during the Zoning Amendment process required to facilitate construction at the 3100 Conroy Road site. Additional input will be obtained during the Site Plan Approval process for the building design and site layout for the new Works Yard at 3100 Conroy Road.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

With approval of the recommendation contained in this report project authority in the amount of $7.0 M will be transferred from capital project Maple Grove Facility to capital project Heatherington Building Replacement..

Construction of the Maple Grove Facility will be delayed until new authority is established. The request will be made in the Draft 2010 Capital Budget.

LEGAL/RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

There are no legal/risk management impediments to implementing the recommendations in this report.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Document 1 – Aerial Photograph of 1770 Heatherington

Document 2 - Aerial Photograph of 3100 Conroy Road

Document 3 – Aerial Photograph of 1655 Maple Grove Road

DISPOSITION

Following Council’s approval, Public Works staff will finalize the design and construction project for a Public Works facility at 3100 Conroy Road. Upon completion of the new facility, Public Works staff will disengage from the existing site at 1770 Heatherington and make the property available for disposal and redevelopment.

Public Works staff will review implications of the revised Ministry of Environment Assessment of the Carp River flood plain on the proposed redevelopment of 1655 Maple Grove Road Works Yard. Revised budget estimates will be submitted as part of the 2010 Capital Budget plan.

M E M O / N O T E D E S E R V I C E

To / Destinataire	Members of the Transportation Committee	File/N° de fichier:
From / Expéditeur	General Manager Public Works
Subject / Objet	Conroy Public Works Facility ASC2009-COS-PWS-0005	Date: DateMarch 3, 2009

The purpose of this memo is to address some items raised by Councillor Qadri with respect to the Conroy Public Works Facility report, which will be tabled at the Transportation Committee meeting on March 4, 2009, specifically clarification relating to the impact on the Maple Grove facility.

In the last paragraph of the DISCUSSION section of the report, the use of the words “unknown restrictions” were not intended to create the impression that staff were anticipating that the Carp River 3rd Party Review study will result in any negative impacts on property owners. The results of that study are simply unknown at this time. This has been reviewed by Legal staff.

The report also indicates that the Department will be including in the 2010 Capital Budget estimates for the required funding to complete the Maple Grove Works project as originally approved by Council.

Finally, Councillor Qadri enquired about the potential for delaying the Conroy Public Works facility project. Specifically, he asked if it was possible to request the additional funding for the Conroy project through the 2010 Capital budget rather than out of the existing Maple Grove works project. The Councillor was advised that staff are not in favour of delaying the Conroy Road project. Citywide Public Works facilities are under operational stress due to the fire that destroyed the Maple Grove facility in 2006, the new fire at the Catherine works facility and the restrictions at the Heatherington site.

The Catherine site is undergoing repairs to restore it to full operational capacity, which will help, the Maple Grove facility and the Heatherington replacement are critical to ensuring effective and efficient operations. In addition, any further delays will result in increased costs of the overall project. It is imperative that the work at the Conroy site commences this year. Since the Maple Grove Works project cannot proceed in the immediate future, it was considered reasonable to take the approach that is being proposed and recommended by Finance staff.

Staff did consider proceeding with the project using the current funding envelope, however the design team does not recommend this, as it would result in increased costs and the inability to commit to the entire facility construction in the tender call.

Councillor Qadri is not pleased with the transferring of funds, but accepts the proposal based on the condition that funding would be requested by staff in the 2010 budget for the Maple Grove facility. The Councillor also requests this memo be attached to the report as an attachment to further direct staff to include Maple Grove facility in the 2010 budget

Background to the Heatherington Facility

The facilities at Heatherington works yard have reached the end of their service life. The extent of the problems with these facilities became evident in 2002 when, in response to Health and Safety concerns, the Ministry of Labour issued orders to cease use of some of the buildings and restricted use in others. Some buildings were subsequently demolished and replaced with temporary trailers until a new facility can be built.

In 2004, Surface Operations included a new project for the redevelopment of Heatherington yard in the Long Range Financial Plan with a projected budget of $5.5M for 2006/2007. During the preparation of the 2007 budget, the projected cost of $5.5M was reduced to $4.64M to fit within the available funding envelope. That amount was included in the 2007 Capital budget that was subsequently approved by Council.

Following that, in May of 2007, City Council approved the Department’s strategy of rationalizing and consolidating of its works facilities. Part of the strategy included relocating the Heatherington works yard to city owned property on Conroy Road. It also included the closure of the works yard on Leitrim Road and consolidating those operations into the existing Rideau Valley yard and the proposed Conroy Works facility.

On March 1, 2009, Transportation Committee Members received an e-mail from a resident, Mr. Klaus Beltzner, regarding the increased costs of the Conroy facility. Following is information in response to Mr. Beltzner questions.

As indicated above, the original estimate in 2004 was for redevelopment of the Heatherington yard at its existing location. Relocating to the Conroy Road site does result in some increased costs, however, there are also offsetting benefits derived from the disposal of the Heatherington property and redevelopment into more suitable for the area. The initial estimate in 2004, for redevelopment of Heatherington yard was $5.5M. Inflated to current dollars, the new project cost is $6.9M. In addition, there are some premium costs due to relocation to a new site, such as the need for new material storage buildings, cold storage building, site servicing, development costs, etc. Geotechnical reports also identified the need for additional foundation work due to the soil conditions.

The increased costs are summarized in the table below.

		ORIGNAL DESIGN ($000)	REVISED DESIGN ($000)
1	Design	500	500
2	Construction	5,000	5,000
3	Inflation on original design & construction		1,400
4	Site Servicing		2,000
5	Material storage buildings		400
6	Cold storage buildings		1,000
7	Development Charges		800
8	Project Management		500
	TOTAL	$5,500	$11,600

Items 4, 5 and 7 in the Table above are premiums associated with locating to a new site versus rebuilding on an existing site. Site servicing includes site grading, drainage, utility services (water, sewer, hydro, telephone), fencing, security, additional foundation works as a result of geotechnical findings, etc. Development Charges includes such things as obtaining zoning changes, permit fees, development charges, environmental assessments, signage, etc Item 6 is the result of needs identified through the Facility Rationalization and Consolidation study.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at ext. 21110.

Original signed by

John Manconi

cc: Deputy City Manager, City Operations

Coordinator, Transportation Committee
Director, Infrastructure Services
District Manager, Roads, Parks and Trees

CONROY PUBLIC WORKS FACILITY

Installation de Travaux publics du chemin Conroy

ACS2009-COS-PWS-0005 Gloucester-SouthGate (10)

All members of Council received a memo dated 3 March 2009 from the General Manager, Public Works.

John Manconi, General Manager, Public Works and Ray Yantha, District Manager, Roads Parks and Trees were present to answer questions of Committee.

Councillor Qadri posed a series of questions regarding the transfer of funds from the Maple Grove facility account to the Conroy facility account. In response, Mr. Manconi provided the following details:

· Due to a third party review (MOE), construction of the Maple Grove facility could not be initiated this year; therefore, staff decided to transfer the money in order to proceed with Conroy, with funding for the former to be reinstated in 2010

· If the money was not available from the Maple Grove facility, staff were not in support of waiting until the 2010 budget because of the deplorable conditions at the existing facility on Heatherington Road and escalating costs as a result of lease and alternate arrangements

Councillor Qadri spoke briefly to the memo that was previously circulated and which he and staff had prepared. He expressed the view that while he did not object to transferring the funds from a facility in his ward to another, he was concerned that he had not been consulted in that arrangement. In future, when similar circumstances deem it necessary to move funds from one account to another, he suggested that all affected ward councillors be involved in that process.

Mr. Manconi offered his apologies, and confirmed that this is the arrangement that should have been followed.

The Chair noted the request in the memo to attach it to the staff report when it rises to Council and asked how that could be done. Ernest McArthur, Legal Counsel, suggested that such direction be added as a third recommendation to receive the memo.

The Chair made further reference to details in the memo which responded to concerns posed by a public delegation about the increased costs of the Conroy facility. She asked that the General Manager advise how he intends to proceed on that concern. Mr. Manconi advised that he would be meeting with the member of the public to review and clarify the information provided in the memo.

Councillor Wilkinson was concerned that staff are proposing to add $7M to the budget which had previously never been anticipated. She felt it showed a lack of good planning and that staff were doing this on an ad hoc basis. Mr. Manconi explained that the approach staff took, was what is best thing to do in the long term. He suggested the Heatherington facility could have been reconstructed, but it would be situated in the middle of a neighbourhood on developable land. And so, staff determined to move that facility to a piece of property already owned by the City. The councillor made note of the fact that no money had been put into the previous or current budget to address this and such an expenditure should be dealt with at budget time, not after the fact. She was also concerned that removing it from one project to another will put pressure on the 2010 budget.

Councillor Legendre was of the opinion that budgetary matters can and should be dealt with throughout the year.

Klaus Beltzner thanked staff for addressing his concerns in the memo dated 3 March. He indicated that his main concern was not just a question of public due diligence, but also (for purposes of transparency) the level of detail in the staff report, so the public can understand exactly what is being requested. He explained that his only unanswered question is the cost escalations for capital projects. A copy of his e-mailed submission dated 1 March is held on file.

The Chair reiterated staff’s offer to meet with Mr. Beltzner to discuss his concerns further.

Moved by A. Cullen

That the Committee receive the staff memo dated 3 March 2009 to this report.

CARRIED

That the Transportation Committee recommends that Council approve:

2. The transfer of $7.0 M of tax supported debenture financing from Capital Project Maple Grove Facility Works Operation to Capital Project Heatherington Building Replacement (Conroy Development Plan).

3. Receive the staff memo dated 3 March 2009 to this report.

CARRIED, as amended, with Councillors Bloess and Wilkinson dissenting on Recommendations 1 and 2.