| The Calgary Downtown Association (CDA) says city council has to address an acute parking shortage in order to ensure the "continued vitality" of downtown.
In a recent poll conducted by the CDA, 70 per cent of Calgary households felt there was "insufficient parking" available downtown and 57 per cent said city council should not implement any new policies to limit parking.
The CDA is lobbying to prevent city council from adopting a new parking policy that the group says would further limit parking. Currently, owners of office buildings built between 3rd Street E. and 9th Street W. and 5th and 9th Avenues are only allowed to build 50 per cent of their parking needs on site. They are then required to pay cash in lieu for the city to build public parking downtown. City administration is recommending that city council expand this policy to the entire downtown, which the CDA says would further exacerbate the problem.
The CDA is calling on the city to hire an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive review of parking in the downtown core that takes into account Calgary’s rapid growth.
"We’re hoping… the city will look at a comprehensive review of the downtown accessibility, so looking at not only long-and short-stay parking, but also transit and the road infrastructure that’s necessary," says CDA executive director Richard White.
White points out that under the Calgary Transportation Plan, the city forecasted there would be 112,000 people working downtown by 2024, but there are already more than 120,000 people doing so now and there could be as many as 130,000 by 2010. The CDA estimates that another five million square feet of office space will be developed over the next five to 10 years downtown.
White adds that parking in Calgary is now more expensive than any other Canadian city, and as redevelopment occurs in the East Village and the Beltline, that will further reduce the amount of parking available in the downtown area.
White says the city has tried to constrain parking to encourage transit use, but transit expansion hasn’t kept up with demand either.
"You can’t restrict the parking without providing the transit," he says.
White says 43 per cent of people who work downtown are already using public transit and another seven per cent walk or cycle to work.
CDA board member Larry Clausen says the CDA is concerned that so many Calgarians feel there’s inadequate parking because that could impact businesses downtown.
"If they think it’s a problem, that will stop them from coming shopping downtown, eating downtown or even coming to the arts downtown," he says.
Ald. Druh Farrell, who represents most of downtown, says city council has asked administration to conduct a "block by block" study of parking downtown and come up with options to increase short-term stalls.
But she says long-term parking is a "different animal." Farrell describes the city’s long-term parking policy as a "highly visionary, forward thinking policy."
"It’s the envy of many cities in America. What it does is limit the amount of parking in the city with the focus on public transport," she says.
Farrell admits the city "fell down" on its commitment to provide adequate transit options, but says that’s now being addressed with the purchase of 33 new LRT cars and an expansion of LRT platforms.
She adds that it wouldn’t make sense for the city to allow more long-term parking for downtown employees because it would create gridlock on roads that are already at capacity, and lead to pressure to build new roads and bridges, which would destroy portions of inner-city communities.
"By allowing more privately owned parking underneath a building, we’d be simply encouraging commuters to use their cars," says Farrell. "We’re in a lucky position. It’s a rare position of very successful healthy communities surrounding our downtown, and a lot of cities would fight for that and we have it. Let’s not ruin it." |
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