Tim Hortons Ground Breaking ceremony for the new distribution facility on Innovation Drive was held on July 12. Dignitaries, TDL executives, City officials and the media enjoyed coffee and donuts as they listened to presentations from John Hemenin, TDL’s Executive VP Supply Chain, Jeff Garrah, KEDCO CEO, Mayor Harvey Rosen, and Senator Hugh Segal.

The new Tim Hortons distribution facility will be 130,000 square feet and cover fifty-eight acres in the St. Lawrence Business Park. The facility will triple the size of the current distribution centre on Cataraqui Woods Drive and will employ almost 200 people.
When it’s completed in the second half of 2011, it will service 650 restaurants in Eastern Ontario and Quebec.

But…

The announcement of the new Tim Hortons facility isn’t good news for all residents. Increased truck traffic along Highway 15 means more noise for the two bed and breakfasts located meters from the Industrial Park.
Although Zoe and Don from The Tymparon Inn and Tessa and Nigel from the Greenwoods Inn attended city meetings and were allowed to see the plans, they were unable to affect the outcome of any decisions.

According to Deanna Green, the City of Kingston’s Traffic Manager and George Wallace, the City of Kingston’s Planning Director, “The public can express concerns, but the St. Lawrence Business Park is zoned for warehouses like Tim Hortons and City Bylaws permit this kind of truck traffic.”

There won’t be any new truck traffic from 9pm – 2am, but there will be 20 truck trips between 2am and 7am with an additional 60 trips between 7am and 9pm. This extra truck traffic will create a significant amount of noise from braking and changing gears and has the owners of both bed and breakfasts worried.

In a traffic report from J.L. Richards & Associates, they have noted that “traffic exiting the St. Lawrence Business Park has increased in peak AM and PM hours since November 2008 by 27% in the morning and 17% in the evening. And traffic entering the Business Park has increased approximately 37% in both the AM and PM peak hours.”

Although the Tim Hortons warehouse is a positive move for Kingston, the extra traffic will certainly affect the livelihood of long time residents along Highway 15.

Pic: Senator Hugh Segal, Colonel Rick Fawcett, John Hemenon, Executive Vice President Supply Chain TDL, Mayor Harvey Rosen, Jeff Garrah, CEO KEDCO