Stony Plain Road a go as LRT routes approved

Edmonton city council approved the proposed southeast and west routes of the LRT on Tuesday afternoon.

The decision means low-floor trains will travel from Lewis Estates in the west end, along Stony Plain Road to downtown, then to Mill Woods in the southeast part of the city.

While council approved the new routes by a 9-4 vote, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel suggested afterwards that the plan could change.

"That could be adjusted depending on what happens … what the costs are going to be and an analysis of the problems that it creates," he told a reporter.

The part of the route along Stony Plain was the most controversial, as local businesses complained that trains could cut down on car and foot traffic along the strip.

Businessman angry

"It was dirty pool," said Greg Downie, who has owned All Make Vacuum Service for 14 years.

"They were supposed to be splitting the two routes off from the NAIT line. They were not supposed to be voting on that today. They did that totally by surprise."

Downie said a petition he circulated through six stores in the neighbourhood garnered almost 1,400 signatures against the LRT route. His efforts with city councillors were wasted, he said.

"Privately and individually, a lot of them agreed with me," he said. "Obviously, publicly and collectively they don't."

About 25,000 vehicles go past his business every day now, but when the LRT is running, it will be a third of that number, he said.

"Running those lines down Stony Plain Road is going to ensure the death of all these businesses."

'Looking to impose our own ideology'

Coun. Tony Caterina, who wanted to hold off the vote until he could get more information, voted against the decision.

"It's a [recurring] theme in my mind that as a council, we're looking to impose our own ideology on what we think the city should be or should look like or what people should be doing," he told council. "And those who are directly affected … are discounted and the number of bloggers …are considered the gospel."

But councillors said people can still have a say on where stations will go and how the trains will run along the road. The next step is for the transportation department to do concept planning and preliminary engineering work.

Construction could start in 3 years

City transportation manager Bob Boutilier was jubilant about the decision.

"This is Christmas, Hanukkah, I can't think of a whole bunch of holidays this would be for us," he said. "The staff have worked extremely hard on this for the last two years."

Councillors would have to call for any changes to the route before the concept plan is completed within the next couple of months, Boutilier said.

"They can decide at that point they don't like the route," Boutilier said. "The key is at that break point between concept and preliminary engineering. That's when you're making your big investment."

Council also has to seek funding from the provincial and federal governments. Boutilier said construction could start within three years.