Thunder Bay Earthcare chair hoping for more stormwater talk at city council

A Thunder Bay city councillor says he hopes a discussion that took place in advance of a vote to authorize the construction of a new parking lot becomes more common.

Coun. Andrew Foulds, who also chairs the city's Earthcare initiative, said he was pleased with his colleagues' questions at city hall this week, about a planned lot to be built along the waterfront on the north side,south of Pearl Street.

• Heavy rains over weekend cause damage, O'Connor Township declares State of Emergency

• Heavy rain floods homes, washes over curbs

• Kenora declares state of emergency

In the wake of heavy rains over the weekend, several councillors, including Foulds, asked for specific information about the development's ability to handle large amounts of stormwater.

"I'm very hopeful that council continues to see how wise and thoughtful it is to make this investment in a new way of thinking," Foulds said Tuesday afternoon of the city's adoption in recent years of development features that use landscaping and newer engineering ideas to deal with runoff.

Foulds added that infrastructure makes the city "more climate ready."

"I think it's critical that we continue to make the kinds of investments that we are making," he added. "There's an urgency there because it's just going to get more and more severe."

Parking development will take stormwater into account: council told

The parking development in question a $1.6 million project to build both private and public lots along the waterfront south of Pearl Street, as well as realigning a part of Sleeping Giant Parkway to add a handful of other spaces will have some of these more modern features, city staff told council.

That is expected to include a swale running the length of the development to treat and carry water away, as well as specialized landscaping.

Coun. Joe Virdiramo wanted to know if the city could try something else, like using a more permeable surface for the lot itself, but administration said the planned design struck the best balance between function and cost.

The issue of stormwater came up several times on Monday, including an announcement by Couns. Shelby Ch'ng and Paul Pugh two councillors whose wards were hit particularly hard by flooding over the weekend thatthey would hold a public meeting on the issue in the near future.