Report to: Development Services Committee Date of Meeting: April 17, 2007

SUBJECT: Terms of Reference for the Main Street Markham

Class Environmental Assessment

PREPARED BY: Allan Arbuckle, Manager of Infrastructure & Capital Works

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated April 16, 2007, entitled “Terms of Reference for the Main Street Markham Class Environmental Assessment” be received;

AND THAT the Terms of Reference for the Main Street Markham Class Environmental Assessment be endorsed.

AND THAT staff report back to Council in June 2007 with a recommendation for award

of the consulting contract for the project.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Not Applicable

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Funding for the Main Street Markham Class Environmental Assessment in the total amount of $408,500 is included in the 2004 Capital Budget ($150,600) and in the draft 2007 Capital Budget ($257,900).

Study Goal

Past transportation studies including the 2002 Markham Transportation Planning Study and the Greensborough and Wismer Secondary Plan Transportation Studies indicate the need for improvements on sections of Main Street Markham/Hwy 48 to deal with future north-south traffic demand. The Town also has identified the need for streetscaping improvements in accordance with heritage and urban design objectives. The Environmental Assessment is being undertaken to establish a preferred design concept for Main Street Markham between Highway 407 and the future connection of the Markham Bypass north of Major Mackenzie Drive. The goal of the Study is to establish appropriate road cross sections, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, streetscape features and urban design characteristics for the corridor. The Study will also provide recommendations for improvements to the Rouge River crossing north of Highway 407, the Robinson Creek crossing south of Major Mackenzie Drive and the rail line crossing located north of Bullock Drive/Parkway Avenue.

The project will be undertaken as a Schedule C activity in accordance with the requirements of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment for municipal road projects, and will include extensive public consultation (including a Community Advisory Group).

Selection of Consultants

The selection of a consultant team to conduct the Main Street Markham Class Environmental Assessment is being conducted as a two stage process. The first phase of the selection process involving the prequalification of consultant teams based on the team qualifications in a variety of disciplines, past experience with similar projects, project approach and public consultation program was completed in the spring of 2006 with the prequalification of the following candidate consultant teams;

Lead Consultant	Natural Environment Consultant	Heritage Consultant	Land Use Planning	Public Consultation & Facilitation	Noise
Totten Sims Hubicki (TSH)	Gartner Lee Ltd	Unterman McPhail Associates	TSH	Ogilvie & Ogilvie	RWDI
McCormick Rankin Corporation (MRC)	Ecoplans Limited	Unterman McPhail Associates	Meridian Planning	Ogilvie & Ogilvie	MRC
NCE Limited (NCE)	Gartner Lee Ltd	Archaeological Services Inc.	Walker Nott Dragicevic	NCE	NCE
Earth Tech Canada Inc. (ET)	Gartner Lee Ltd	Archaeological Services Inc.	Planning Partnership	Gartner Lee Ltd	ET

The second phase of the selection process involves the submission of a detailed proposal by each of the four prequalified teams. A Request for Proposal, which includes detailed Terms of Reference for the EA study, has been prepared by engineering staff in consultation with the Purchasing Department and will be forwarded to each prequalified team.