Abstract Manager

Neighbourhood Streets Plans (NSPs) is a Toronto program -led by the City's Transportation Services for community-guided plans for traffic, road safety, and active transportation and is undergoing its second official annual cycle. Five new projects have been initiated in the 2024-25 cycle while 5 projects are currently underway for the 2023-2024 cycle. Prior “beta” projects completed before the formalization of the program have help inform program development including processes to streamline consultation, proposal development, implementation pathways and report to Council.

However, one size does not fit all.

In the practice of adopting standard practices, project teams have needed learn how to adapt to consultation challenges unique to the different neighbourhoods. For example, in communities resistant to any change, lessons were learned about how to build trust and understanding about decision making processes through a resident advisory group. In highly engaged communities, where many changes are proposed, effort was placed in sequencing many small interest-group meetings to address varying priorities by geographic area and demographics in a neighbourhood.  In communities with a history of less engagement, additional outreach efforts and cultural sensitivity were key to begin the work of overcoming traditional barriers.

This presentation shares lessons learned from a retrospective analysis of the consultation experiences in a selection of Neighbourhood Streets Plans to date, specifically how to discuss proposals with distributed benefits and impacts.

It will outline:

• common consultation challenges experienced in many NSP such as NIMBYism and often a singular focus by community members to a particular issue or location.
• example adaptations in consultation plans tailored to a community’s key priorities and context, and the lessons learned
• snapshots of 2-3 neighbourhood projects and the resulting traffic, road safety, and active transportation recommendations that attempt to retrofit a complete network

It will seek to represent the broad variety in neighbourhood types and target populations encountered in NSPs: from suburban to central or mid-town areas, strongly engaged and historically underserved communities, to areas with overlapping new infrastructure, other relevant planning efforts, and rapid change.