The District of Squamish is increasing the price of its cash-lieu of parking regulations.
Cash in lieu means that a property owner or developer may opt to pay the District a sum for a limited number of vehicle parking stalls, rather than providing the otherwise required number of spaces on the site.
On Jan. 18, council unanimously voted to adopt a new regulation that would increase the payment rate for each reduced stall from $25,000 to $30,000.
This would apply to the downtown area and commercial parking stalls.
General manager Gary Buxton said that according to previous studies, it would cost about $65,000 per stall if the District were to build a parkade in the downtown area.
Buxton recommended increasing the cash-lieu rate to $30,000 — even though it's roughly half of the required cost per parkade stall — because it hits a sweet spot.
He said that discussions with developers show this sweet spot begins to change when costs go beyond the $30,000 to $35,000 range.
There is $630,000 in the off-street parking reserve fund, which is money that could go to a project like a parkade.
If the cash-in-lieu rate is too high, a staff report says, no developers will pay into the program. This means if the District were to construct something like a parkade, it wouldn't have that money to help cover the costs.
Coun. Armand Hurford said he was comfortable with the numbers and supported the increase to $30,000.
Coun. Doug Race supported the motion, but he said the parking issue is not going to go away, and there has been an increase of complaints from the community.
"At $30,000 a stall and $65,000 to build one, apparently, this is not the solution," he said.
Race said he hoped further study would help come up with answers.
Coun. Chris Pettingill also supported the motion but said he was against putting public money towards parking, in light of the climate crisis.
He said city designs need to be shifted away from cars.
However, Pettingill said, in theory, this would result in less public funding towards parking.
Coun. Eric Andersen said that there is room for flexibility if the District chooses to build a parkade.
He noted that parkades can be converted to different purposes if needed.
"Parkades can be repurposed to other uses, and this should be an exciting prospect in opening up some options for flexibility as we make plans for the future," Andersen said.
