Community Updates - November 6, 2011
Thank you for attending yesterday's meeting about the Stockyards retail development.
We know it wasn't perfect timing for everyone, so we appreciate you taking the time to learn about our construction project and process.
Before you left, you filled out a survey saying you would like email updates. This will be the first of many. We are committed to keeping you informed.
We have five updates today:
1. We are committed to better ongoing communications
We heard many concerns yesterday. One of them was that our neighbours feel uninformed. We will use this email address to communicate information about the Stockyards development through various construction phases. (Reply to this email with "Unsubscribe" if you don't want future emails).
If you have neighbours who didn't attend the meeting but want information, please forward this message or ask them to contact us with contact information.
We can be reached by email at 30weston@trinity-group.com or phone at 416-255-8800.
We will likely send two more communications this week: 1. a list of community reps, and 2. notes from our upcoming meeting with reps. (See below for details).
2. Community reps will meet with Trinity, technical experts and Councillor Nunziata early this week.
As promised, we will meet early this week with representatives picked by the community. We will circulate the list of reps tomorrow so you can confirm that you are well represented.
Our plan is to hold the meeting Tuesday evening, depending on the availability of the reps. We will discuss the need to conduct additional home inspections/surveys, alternate work schedules/timelines, and other areas of concern.
3. Many of you requested the information posted at the event. It is attached.
After yesterday's presentation, many of you spoke to our experts and asked questions that were answered by referring to the posters we had around the room and in the lobby. Attached are the 8 posters covering important topics like site details, why our work is necessary, the methods we're using, alternative methods, relevant permits and approvals, and our estimated timelines.
4. Our weekday work will begin again Monday.
As you're aware, out of respect for your concerns and our Saturday meeting, we stopped all work all weekend. As we also discussed, delays like this extend the schedule for this necessary phase of work. While we and Councillor Nunziata committed to discontinuing weekend work, we will continue that dialogue on Tuesday with your community reps to determine the appropriate course of action. Ground improvement work will resume on Monday and will involve noise and vibration.
We know this work will be unpopular and disruptive. But, work done on weekdays is work we don't have to do on weekends and next Spring. All work will be done within the permitted 7am to 7pm weekday limits. However, we expect Sunday's time change will restrict our end time as we need daylight to work.
IMPORTANT NOTE: As discussed yesterday, our original schedule was for 11 weeks of ground improvement. If we are allowed to work weekends, that timeline could shrink by 30% to 8 weeks.
We want to be clear: This week is WEEK 3. This means, if weather allows and we work weekends, we have as few as 5 weeks left. Without working weekends and if weather is cold and/or wet, we have at least 8 weeks remaining and will need to work next Spring.
5. We will address home inspection concerns.
As we communicated yesterday, when we originally offered home inspections, we covered an area of homes twice as large as we were required to cover. Some home owners accepted inspections, some refused, and we were unsuccessful reaching others. While we did what we were required to do, we understand that many of you feel we didn't do enough.
We know that many of you remain concerned with vibrations and would like your home inspected. Now that we have your requests and contact information, we will set a course to deal with requests. We will communicate shortly about logistics and timeframes for inspections. Depending on the number of requests, you may need to be patient. We will work as quickly as possible and will discuss options with community reps on Tuesday.
Finally, we appreciate your patience and your willingness to have an open dialogue with us. We are committed to improving the neighbourhood, following all permits and laws, minimizing the impact of our work, and communicating better.
Sincerely,
Mike and Stefan, Trinity Development Group