Council reverses on car-free days

Kitchener will join its neighbours to the north in hosting a series of Car-Free Sundays this summer. But the pilot program had its share of speed bumps before ultimately being passed by council.

The concept of car-free days was brought forward by Waterloo councillor Melissa Durrell and Kitchener councillor Dan Glenn-Graham about six weeks ago and it caught some other members of council unaware. Waterloo would approve the program at its meeting on May 16th while Kitchener made its final decision last night. As final decisions go, however, this one did not come easily.

In Kitchener, council initially rejected the idea, prompting Glenn-Graham to send a note to his colleague in Waterloo, letting her know the motion had failed to pass. That brought Durrell to Kitchener council late last night, along with a sponsor of the event, in hopes of an 11th-hour save.

It worked and Kitchener council would reverse its initial decision, voting instead 8-3 in favour of the idea. Only councillors Kelly Galloway and Zyg Janecki, along with mayor Carl Zehr, remained opposed.

“We do have a new opportunity to do something transformational in our community,” says a thrilled Glenn-Graham. “Sometimes things come along and you have to respond and I think this is our chance. There’s a huge appetite for this in the community.”

Much of the resistance in Kitchener stems from the fact the cost of the program was not included in this year’s budget, a document that already deeply divided the new council. During budget deliberations, council removed $20,000 from its special events budget in a bid to trim costs.

Glenn-Graham is well aware of the financial impact of the program and he’s hopeful of finding sponsors to offset the cost.

“We had said no to $20,000 worth of programming events during the budget deliberations,” Glenn-Graham admits in trying to explain where the money for car-free Sundays will come from. “(So sponsors are important) not only from an optics point of view because we’re spending $46,500 on four events.”

Kitchener will allocate about $11,500 for each car-free event but has actually committed to a maximum of three. While Waterloo will begin its car-free Sundays on June 19th, Kitchener will not start until July 17th. That’s also the day of the Ribfest and craft beer show in Kitchener’s Victoria Park.

Other car-free days this summer will fall on August 14th and September 18th. On those days, King Street will be closed to most vehicular traffic from Kitchener City Hall to Waterloo public square.

“We’re not trying to animate the entire route but we will have some fun surprises along the way,” Glenn-Graham says of the challenges that need to be met for hospital access and the movement of other traffic between Victoria and Union streets. “We’re certainly animating the squares and we’ll have lots of fun entertainment at either end.”

Waterloo will host its own car-free event on June 19th before Kitchener joins in July. Glenn-Graham says his council colleagues have approved the idea as a pilot program only. That means it will happen on July 17th for certain and Kitchener council will decide after that if it’s worth continuing.

Waterloo will spend about $7,500 for each event.