Parking in the downtown core is not being enforced, according to Mike Chapman, owner of 1914 Coffee Company.
In fact, he said he has complained multiple times by speaking with city councillors and bylaw officers.
“For me, [it] has boiled down to the fact that over a year and a half ago, the District spent thousands of dollars making a new parking plan for downtown and put in parking signs yet have made literally zero efforts to enforce,” Chapman said.
The District rolled out a new parking strategy in 2016 and has recently promised to finalize plans for a parking structure downtown. With all the new developments and fewer variances for parking, business owners like Chapman are seeking a solution.
Edward Archibald, acting president of the Downtown Squamish Business Improvement Association, said the strategy saw the implementation of two-hour signage and a new lot on Loggers Lane.
However, where it fell flat was enforcement.
“If you don’t enforce it everyone is going to figure that out pretty quick and they will park there all day long,” Archibald said.
Though recognizing the District is working in partnership with the BIA and other community groups, as well as under budget restrictions, he said, the first step is to hire a full or part-time bylaw officer to focus on ticketing and monitoring two-hour parking on Cleveland Avenue.
“It will go a long way to alleviate the issues we have with parking downtown.”
Last year, the BIA did a parking survey and is about to embark on another to present council with feedback from businesses, property owners and residents.
The District is working hard to come up with an overall strategy for downtown, which Archibald said it’s lacked for years. The plan would cover infrastructure like bike paths and transit, which would reduce parking issues.
Also, a parking structure is needed. The BIA is looking at partnerships with private malls downtown with stalls.
Coun. Ted Prior said he’s been talking about parking for years. “If you look at downtown, there’s not a lot of empty lots left,” he said.
A plan since the early 2000s made it clear that the District should search for appropriate parking structures, he said. “We don’t want to put the taxpayers on the hook for parking.”
New developments have less variances for parking, like Under One Roof. He said he did not want it to pass without more discussion of adding parking stalls.
“As we get more people working downtown, prime parking stalls are being taken up,” Mayor Heintzman told The Chief.
Though two-hour parking in the core has existed for 15 years, she said, “you’ll start to see bylaw going out to monitor this more frequently.”
A multi-story parking structure can be anything, Heintzman said. “We are trying to explore the best bang for your buck and not kill the downtown development process.”
The challenge is new technologies like driverless cars, she said, noting decisions cannot be made on hypotheticals. “Are we going to build a $15-million parking structure that will be completely redundant in 15 years?”
Council is discussing the cost of exceeding variances for developers and may create more 15-minute stalls along Cleveland Avenue or put in 250 stalls where the dike on the Mamquam Channel will be located. That way, she said, it can be repurposed in the future.
“The challenge is there’s no easy silver-bullet solution,” Heintzman said. “We can’t be wasteful with taxpayer’s money either.”
