Part 1: Accessibility Advisory Committee Reviews Park Planning, Film Policy, and Base 31 Accessibility Concerns - 11/19/2024
- PECConnect
- Nov 19, 2024
- 4 min read
The Accessibility Advisory Committee meeting on November 19, 2024 opened with confirmations around live streaming and accessibility supports, including sign language interpretation. The committee confirmed the agenda without changes and declared no conflicts of interest.
The previous meeting minutes were approved with a clarifying amendment to better describe a past accessibility audit of county owned facilities. This was done to improve public understanding and historical record keeping.
View the entire PEC Council meeting, or continue to speaker comments and councillor votes.
Community Announcements
A short announcement was shared about the Picton Santa Claus Parade, including start time, route, and accessibility related microphone adjustments. This moment highlighted the committee’s ongoing attention to real time communication access, even for simple updates.
Parkland Dedication and New Green Space Planning
The committee received an update on a parkland dedication project originally tied to Picton laneways. The focus has shifted toward developing a new green space near Downs Avenue, close to apartment buildings, condos, and growing residential areas.
Discussion centered on ensuring the park serves multiple age groups, includes accessible play equipment, safe pathways, lighting, signage, and clear ownership visibility. The committee emphasized avoiding gravel surfaces and prioritizing materials that work for wheelchairs, strollers, and mobility devices.
The laneways portion of the project was officially put on hold due to ownership limits, budget constraints, winter maintenance challenges, and the need for a future public art policy.
Draft Film Policy and Accessibility Impacts
The committee reviewed a draft film policy connected to the County joining the Bay of Quinte Film Office. The policy aims to attract film and television projects while minimizing disruption to residents and businesses.
Accessibility discussions focused on parking impacts, traffic congestion, noise, detours, park closures, and notification methods. Committee members raised concerns about filming during peak tourist season, access to public parks, noise levels affecting shift workers, and how residents would be notified if they were away.
Staff confirmed that film permits would require noise exemptions, written notification within a defined radius, and the presence of a film liaison on site to resolve issues.
The committee stressed the need for accessible communications for deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing residents.
Access the County Project Update
The committee received an update on the Access the County project, which works with local businesses to improve accessibility awareness and practices. Training workshops for business champions were underway, with a second round planned for January.
The project was praised for building long term capacity within the business community rather than relying only on enforcement.
Non Profit Networking Event Debrief
A debrief was shared from the Forward Together non profit networking event, which brought together service clubs, youth organizations, mental health providers, employment services, and transit representatives.
Major themes included transportation barriers, volunteer shortages, financial strain on service clubs, food insecurity, housing challenges, and the idea of creating a community trust model similar to neighboring municipalities.
The committee discussed the importance of tracking follow up actions, maintaining connections between groups, and possibly hosting the event annually.
Planning Review for Base 31 Subdivision
The committee reviewed a draft plan of subdivision for Base 31, focusing on accessibility obligations under the Municipal Act. Concerns included the lack of affordable housing in the first phase, sidewalk design risks for visually impaired residents, transit access, park accessibility, and neighborhood connectivity.
While broader planning issues were acknowledged, the committee stayed focused on accessibility related impacts and submitted formal comments.
Vital Signs Report and Community Trends
An overview of the Vital Signs report highlighted long term trends affecting accessibility, including housing affordability, population change, food insecurity, transit expansion, healthcare access, aging demographics, and a higher than average rate of amputations.
Members discussed the difficulty of disaggregating data for Prince Edward County alone and emphasized the importance of accessibility data tied to real lived experience.
Work Plan and Accessibility Lens
A major discussion focused on the need to apply an accessibility lens to all capital projects, rather than relying on repeated studies. Members expressed frustration with studying known problems without funding solutions.
The committee agreed to add a formal discussion on developing an accessibility lens to the 2025 work plan.
The committee confirmed plans to prepare its 2024 report to Council, approved a revised 2025 meeting schedule, and adjourned after addressing accessibility related scheduling conflicts.
Disclaimer: This article is based on a meeting with an approximate duration of 2:07:13. Due to the length of the meeting, our team was not able to independently review the full recording in its entirety. As a result, we relied on software-generated transcription, automated summarization, and automated recognition of speakers and participants, which may not be entirely accurate. All transcriptions, summaries, and related content are prepared by our team in good faith and on a reasonable best-efforts basis. The content is provided for general informational purposes only and is intended to support public understanding of the topics discussed. While reasonable efforts have been made to present the information accurately, automated processes may result in errors, omissions, or unintended misinterpretations. This article does not constitute an official, certified, or verbatim record of the meeting, and it should not be relied upon as such. Readers are encouraged to consult original source materials, official minutes, or recordings where available for confirmation or clarification. Questions, requests for clarification, or suggested corrections may be submitted to hello@pecconnect.ca for review and consideration.
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