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The parking ‘elephant’ in downtown

Coun. Ted Prior says he is concerned for the future of downtown
Tony Bortolotto of the Chicago Hair Gallery on Cleveland Avenue says over the last year parking has increasingly become an issue for his clients.

Squamish’s other leaders seem to be ignoring an elephant in the room, says Coun. Ted Prior.

Since being back from summer break, District of Squamish officials have sat through meeting after meeting outlining new downtown development proposals.

“Basically there are 1,000 units proposed for downtown,” Prior said in an interview with The Squamish Chief. “That doesn’t include the oceanfront [development].”

While Prior said he’s not opposed to the growth, he is opposed to the projects falling under the municipality’s out-of-touch downtown Squamish off-street parking requirement. The regulation was developed at a time when the district was trying to entice more development downtown, Prior said.

The parking requirement downtown for commercial off-street parking spaces is a minimum of two per 100 square metres of commercial floor space, according to Jonas Velaniskis, the district’s director of development services.

Landowners also have an option of paying cash in lieu of providing off-street commercial parking, he said.

That’s not good enough, according to Prior.

“I have been ringing the alarm bell on this for five years,” Prior said, noting the 16-year-old downtown development strategy, the Squamish 2000 Plan, outlined a need for parking, as did its updated version in 2003. “It might be too late,” Prior added.

Mayor Patricia Heintzman said she shares some of Prior’s concerns.

With the current growth in the community, Squamish is going through some growing pains, such as not enough parking for those who may not be able to walk a few blocks. The recently adopted district parking strategy addresses some concerns, she said, adding it is trial and error to figure out what works where.

“There are aspects of Third Ave., of Loggers Lane [and] of Cleveland where we can be maximizing our parking and making it certainly more accessible for short term parking that is needed for the restaurants and the retail sectors,” she said.

Better transit will be available with more density in the downtown as well, she said, and that will help get some people out of their cars, thus freeing up some parking.

Long-time downtown business owner Tony Bortolotto of the Chicago Hair Gallery on Cleveland Avenue told The Squamish Chief over the last year parking has increasingly become an issue for his clients.

Parkades are the solution, according to Bortolotto. “You don’t put in parkades, you don’t solve the problem.”

He would like to see a plan for three or four parkades downtown, he said.

“The key word here is future,” he added. “If you don’t put future in it, it doesn’t work.”

Prior said it’s an uphill battle to change the downtown parking requirements, noting half of council does not see parking as an issue. District officials are hoping fewer parking spots will lead to more people on bicycles, Prior said, adding that’s not going to happen. Many new residents moving to Squamish work in the Lower Mainland, leaving families with no choice but to have two vehicles, he noted.

Coun. Susan Chapelle quotes U.S. author and urban planner Donald Shoup when she describes Squamish’s free parking downtown as a “fertility drug for cars.” She argues, at this point, the parking issue is more of perception than reality. Squamish has 2,300 parking places downtown, she said, while sipping coffee at a local downtown café at about 9 a.m. on Friday morning and gesturing out the window where there were several empty parking spaces. Along a few blocks of Cleveland Avenue there may no longer be “pole position” spots for cars to park, but within a few blocks away there’s usually parking available, she said.

Chapelle rejects the suggestion council is lenient on developers in terms of parking. “All new buildings either comply or exceed our policy. We have not given leniency. If the policy, currently 1.25 for residential, is not correct in downtown then we have to look at this,” she said. “It is more that we have an extremely challenging geophysical building area than poor regulations.”

Though suggesting parking meters is “Kryptonite” for politicians, it may be where Squamish needs to eventually head, Chapelle said, though she envisions metering being reserved for Cleveland Avenue.

She recently visited Austin, Texas where they have $1-per-hour parking and it keeps the cars moving, she said. The money could go to fund something specific in Squamish rather than into general revenue, so people would know where their money was going.

“If you knew your money was going into say hospice, would you mind paying $1 an hour for parking?” she said.

Parkades are definitely not the answer, Chapelle added. They cost about $8.5 million to build, she said, not including the cost of the land, and they don’t create jobs.

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