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Home My WebLink About2019-05-23 GRAAC Date: Thursday, May 23, 2019 Location: Conestoga Room, City of Kitchener Present: Brenda Robinson (Co-Chair), Councillor Sue Foxton (Region of Waterloo), Councillor Debbie Chapman (City of Kitchener) Lolita Paroski (City of Kitchener/City of Waterloo) Sanjay Govindaraj (Region of Waterloo), Amy Harron (Township of Wellesley), Rob Bender, Paula Saunders, Trevor Tamlin, Ashley Sage (Township of North Dumfries) Regrets: Jeff Smith (Township of Woolwich), Janis McKenzie (City of Kitchener), Jolene MacDonald (Co-Chair), Greg Moore, Keri Cameron and Donna Hartzler, Councillor Sandra Hanmer (City of Waterloo) Absent: Sharon Giles Guests: Paul Redman (Fire Chief Township of Wellesley), Jessica Kellerman (City of Waterloo) and Rebecca Roy (City of Kitchener) Welcome and Introductions called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Round table introductions 2.0 Approval of April Minutes Motion to accept April minutes quorum not met, minutes tabled until next month. 3.0 Declarations of Pecuniary Interests None 4.0 St. Clements Fire Station, Paul Redman (Fire Chief Township of Wellesley) Paul shared a project update for the St. Clements Fire Station. Station #2 was torn down and the new foundation has been poured for the St. Clements Fire Station. The move in date is set for September 2019. This fire hall will be user friendly and open to the public. There is a large meeting room being added. The meeting room will be set up in a way that allows for all types of meetings. All furniture is moveable. Office area will not be accessible to the public. There will be a universal barrier free washroom with push button access. The curb cuts will be done to accessibility standards. There will be a mezzanine accessed by staff used for storage. Comments: It was asked if the meeting room could be used by public groups. Response it was not intended for that use. Barrier free washroom with slender long push button access. Can it be push bar access? This is particularly helpful for those with disabilities as well as with strollers as well when hands are not available. Paul thanked everyone for their input. Any further suggestions can be sent to Amy Harron at the Township of Wellesley. 5.0 City of Waterloo Silver Lake project, Jessica Kellerman (City of Waterloo), Wolfgang Wolter (Ecosystem Recovery Inc.) The Silver Lake project involves the cleanout and retrofit of the Lake, rehabilitation of the creek upstream in Waterloo Park and a new vision and landscape plan around the lake and particularly the bank where Lions Lagoon currently sits. Wolfgang presented the concept design. The northern part is the focus of the work. Will have hard surfaces when completed. Silver Lake plaza will be a gathering area. The playground will be staying as is and has several accessibility components. South of the lake through the Perimeter Institute will be made accessible. The parking lots will not have more than 5 degree slopes. Silver Lake Terrace will remain the same and will have 20-25 parking spaces. A water feature will be the centre point with two ways to get down to the urban beach. Access by steps and access by a composite deck boardwalk that wrap around both sides of the water feature. Several openings from the boardwalk will allow access to concrete slabs as rest stops to be part of the beach. Umbrellas maybe included on the beach. The urban beach is not for swimming in the lake but rather a place to relax. The sand will be heavier to avoid blowing away and not meant for typical beach activities like building sand castles. The water has edging so persons with visual disabilities and children will have protection from entering the water. Comments: If umbrellas are made available on the urban beach. Would like umbrellas made available on the concrete slabs from the deck access points to provide shade. The steps going down need to be marked with warning strips and detection for persons with visual disabilities, as per AODA, Design of Public Spaces standards. Will you have lifeguards on the beach? Response, no the beach is not meant for swimming and signage will be posted. What will happen to Lions Lagoon? Response, a new splash pad to be built. Lions Lagoon is another project that will come to GRAAC at a future meeting. 6.0 Built Environment Sub-Committee update, Paula Saunders Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex project update Lolita and Paula met with City of Waterloo staff (Kevin and Mary Cathryn) to review the most recent designs. The project will progress in three stages. Stage 1 is the Community Pavillion (where the senior day program will be moving to) and Civic Front, Stage 2 is the Hauser Haus and Stage 3 is Aquatic change rooms. Paula and Lolita provided accessibility comments at the meeting and the accessibility comments with the architects. Paula and Lolita will be invited to another meeting to review the designs once changes are made. Kevin asked about finishes such as washroom stall door locks. Paula asked GRAAC members what is preferred. Majority felt that the large slide is most accessible. Accessible BBQ Paula shared that a neighbourhood in Kitchener is working with city staff to install a BBQ for community use at their neighbourhood park. Since this will be a permanent installation city staff are looking for accessibility feedback from GRAAC. Paula welcomed Rebecca Roy from the City of Kitchener. Rebecca distributed drawings and projected the drawing on screen. The BBQ will be custom designed. Rebecca wants to get the measurements right to ensure accessibility. Questions: 1.) What is the maximum height for the grill? Measurements taken at the meeting and determined 3 feet would be the maximum. This will allow a person in a seated position to reach half of the grill to use and to be able to wheel under. 2.) What is a reach range? How close does a person in a wheelchair want to be to the grill? Decided for safety reasons need to keep a 4 inches buffer before the grill starts. This will still allow a person in a wheelchair to use the front half of the grill. 3.) How much clearance is needed for legs under the unit? At least 18 inches. 4.) Is a 570mm clearance lap height enough? Rebecca shared that this is what supplier is suggesting but she feels it is not enough. Decided that 720mm would be the minimum from the lower dimension of the grill (because the grill will take 6 inches) to the ground. The grill will be placed into a cement unit, therefore no exposed pieces of the grill when rolling under the unit with a wheelchair. 7.0 Region of Waterloo ION update - Paula Saunders Paula shared the 2018 ION Station Audit report GRAAC reviewed accessibility at 17 ION LRT stops and nearby intersections. The report shared various accessibility issues and classified the issues under three broad and new Design Standards as they are required for future projects. 8.0 No updates. 9.0 Councillor Reports Councillor Sue Foxton had no updates to report. Councillor Debbie Chapman wanted to make people aware that there are gardens available for planting. They are raised gardens and they are located at the Iron Horse Trail at Glasgow. There is water available for use. 10.0 Co-chair/Staff Reports Brenda Robinson There was a discussion at the last meeting regarding sidewalk clearing. The topic is th going to Council again May 27. Decisions are going to be made about this topic. Should we send a G to ask Dawn if she would like to present again. Tracy Murray Councillors will be reviewing accessibility at the rec complex and sidewalks in New Hamburg this will be a future item for GRAAC. Meeting Adjourned. Next meeting will be on Thursday June 27, 2019 City of Kitchener, 200 King St West, Conestoga Room Please send regrets to: Janis McKenzie at janis.mckenzie@kitchener.ca or call 519-741-2200 Ext. 7225