Downtown Transportation and Parking Study Prepared for: The Town of Richmond Hill 9368.200 October, 2015 Town of Richmond Hill – Downtown Transportation and Parking Study Executive Summary 9368.200 Request for Proposal No. P12004 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.0 Background Downtown Richmond Hill is a place of commercial and recreational activity, featuring a character unique to the rest of the Town of Richmond Hill. The Downtown area is characterized by heritage buildings, numerous shopping and eating locations, as well as recreational locations such as the Richmond Hill Public Library and the Richmond Hill Performing Arts Centre. Yonge Street within the Downtown area features a pedestrian realm featuring urban design elements, engaging streetscapes, and on-street parking. The Downtown area is therefore an important area for Richmond Hill’s public realm, in addition to the retail and leisure opportunities it offers. In planning for the future of Downtown Richmond Hill, the Town has completed a number of previous studies that identify a series of challenges and opportunities for the area, as well as visionary exercises to conceptualize how the Downtown area is to evolve and retain its unique character. The most notable of these studies and visionary exercises are the Downtown Design and Land Use Strategy (DDLUS), and the new Richmond Hill Official Plan, which establish comprehensive design guidelines and policies for the Downtown area. Downtown Richmond Hill has been envisioned as evolving into a mixed use centre, featuring infill development within its Village District, and intensified development in its Uptown and Civic districts. Alongside this intensification and infill development is the desire for the Downtown to be accessed primarily by pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users who live, work, and perform leisure activities in the area. Therefore, the public realm of the Downtown area is planned to be enhanced, increasing its attractiveness, and vitality. This is to be accomplished primarily through the implementation of a linked system of courtyards/mews. To achieve this vision and evolution for Downtown Richmond Hill, the Town is undergoing a process to develop a Secondary Plan. The Secondary Plan will set forward a vision and planning policies for the future of Downtown Richmond Hill. Since a major component of the vision for the Downtown area involves transportation related matters, this study’s purpose is to provide a review of the transportation and parking conditions, and provide direction to the Town to move forward in developing the Secondary Plan, and enhancing the Downtown area. An analysis of the current conditions in Downtown Richmond Hill revealed that traffic operates acceptably with some constraint, and that there is sufficient parking available to accommodate intensification. Further, the analysis of the existing conditions revealed a number of both opportunities and challenges regarding cycling and walking conditions. Moving forward from the analysis of the existing conditions, future conditions were projected. The review of the existing conditions demonstrated the Downtown can support additional development given the future planned conditions are realized. However, it also needed to be determined whether improvements to the existing broader street network are required to permit the vision established for the Downtown area. To that effect, two (2) development projections were analyzed. These projections were for the horizon year of 2031, and post 2031 horizon year. The post 2031 projection was performed to ensure the Town’s ultimate vision for the Downtown area in accordance to the Official Plan can be successfully achieved. See Table E-1 below. Existing Development 2031 Projection Post 2031 Projection Population 1,333 5,903 9,052 Employment 2,586 3,215 4,930 Total 3,919 9,118 13,982 Table E-1: Population and Employment Projections for the Downtown Area LEA Consulting Ltd. E- i | P a g e Town of Richmond Hill – Downtown Transportation and Parking Study Executive Summary 9368.200 Request for Proposal No. P12004 2.0 Challenges The transportation analysis based on the future population and employment projection requires a significant shift in modal split from single-occupancy auto trips to other forms of transportation. As a result of this modal split shift, traffic operations are found to slightly improve compared to the existing conditions despite intensified development. Overall, it was determined that the existing street network is able to accommodate the projected vehicular traffic associated with the planned density, and no broader street network improvements are required. However, the future population and employment projection revealed a number of challenges that will arise in the future at a site development level, and achieving the vision for the Downtown area will introduce new circulation, parking, and loading considerations that will need to be addressed. Firstly, the major modal shift from auto to transit will need to be achieved to result in the projected traffic operations in the Downtown; Secondly, challenges regarding access management will need to be addressed in the future. Since vehicles need to access individual properties within the Downtown area, these accesses will need to be managed in a manner that does not adversely impact traffic operations, or the envisioned public realm; Bolstering the public realm, the planned linked system of courtyards and mews will need to be arranged and managed in such a way that discourages excess traffic from utilizing the linkages. This will ensure that this system of linkages is provided primarily for pedestrians, achieving the envisioned enhanced public realm; An additional challenge will be presented regarding parking. Since parking will need to be provided for development in the Downtown, considerations will need to be addressed in terms of how the parking is accessed, where it is provided, and how it impacts an enhanced public realm; and, Finally, attention will need to be given to loading and waste collection in the Downtown area. The consideration of loading activities is a necessity in relation to the overall public realm to avoid haphazard and unsightly conditions. Given the identified challenges and considerations, a series of strategies and recommendations are provided in the report to ensure the successful implementation of the vision for the Downtown area facilitates the desired public realm and traffic operations. 3.0 Vision for the Downtown Central to the success of the vision for the Downtown area is the linked system of courtyards/mews. Case studies of other linkage systems was undertaken to inform appropriate typologies and considerations. Six (6) linkage types were developed including: Destination courtyard Parking courtyard Active link Driveway link Shared link (Woonerven) Service link In addition, a new urban local street standard is proposed as a new street classification only for the Downtown area of Richmond Hill. The purpose of this Urban Local Street is to increase permeability in the Downtown where needed. It has a reduced right-of-way from the 18m Local Road standard. Links were envisioned for the Downtown area per block (Figure E-1), taking into consideration unique characteristics such as points of ingress/egress, impacts to Yonge Street, built environment, land uses, projected traffic, and directionality. The assignment involves a mix of one-way and two-way links, focusing on creating attractive environments for the pedestrian and discouraging auto cut-through traffic (Figure E-2 - E-3). LEA Consulting Ltd. E- ii | P a g e Town of Richmond Hill – Downtown Transportation and Parking Study Executive Summary 9368.200 Request for Proposal No. P12004 Figure E-2: Shared Linkage/Parking Courtyard Figure E-1: Linked System of Courtyards/Mews Arrangement Figure E-3: Active Linkage LEA Consulting Ltd. E- iii | P a g e Town of Richmond Hill – Downtown Transportation and Parking Study Executive Summary 9368.200 Request for Proposal No. P12004 4.0 Recommendations Given the list of challenges that will need to be addressed to ensure the successful implementation of the Town’s vision for the Downtown area, a list of recommendations have been provided. They are as follows: Access Management Require consolidation of accesses between developments within the Downtown: o Avoid access onto Yonge Street o Provide inter-connections between the privately and publicly owned parking facilities o Provide connections between the parking facilities and the street network Linked System of Courtyards/Mews Provide direction for pedestrian and cyclist linkages Implement the linkage typology guidelines (Table 4-1) Adopt the linked system of courtyards/mews as a Schedule Linkage implementation focuses on accommodating active modes of transportation along the linkages, although vehicle and servicing uses can also be accommodated to facilitate the broader access management regulations and vision of the DDLUS Limit potential cut-through trips and mitigate traffic impacts on existing bottlenecks by adopting a mix of one- way and two-way linkages The linked system of courtyard/mews will be implemented through the development approval process Provide policy direction for a new Urban Local Street in the Downtown area Parking Management Implement TDM policies Include policies related to publicly-owned, consolidated parking facilities within the Downtown area to reduce on-site development parking provisions Provide up to 1,300 spaces by 2031 in