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Letter: Place des Arts takes away more downtown parking

Many people already avoid downtown due to lack of available parking, says reader
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Stéphane Gauthier, president of Place des Arts du Grand Sudbury, talks about the exterior design of Place des Arts. (Arron Pickard/Sudbury.com)

Regardless of whether or not you endorse Place des Arts, there is growing concern about the erosion of available parking in the downtown, compounded by creation of the new structure, grand though it may be when completed as we were told last week.

As there was no requirement for provision of parking on the site of the new development, or that of the School of Architecture, there are almost 300 fewer parking spaces available for those doing business or for other reasons downtown, day or night, including attendance at either of these facilities. 

It could be questioned why it was not required for both of these buildings to have included parking in their design to replace those spaces lost in the parking areas they formerly occupied, as was the case with the YMCA Centre on Durham Street, site of a former parking lot. This parking area used by the Older Adult Centre and a unit of HSN is now congested by other users unable to find convenient parking elsewhere in the downtown.

My downtown dentist has had to buy parking space for clients in private lots. Businesses report their customers have difficulty in finding suitable parking and was one of the main reasons for Robert Brown Jewelers closing up shop recently.
 
We now face the prospect of more parking spaces being lost with the creation of the Arts Junction to house the downtown library, to be moved from its present location where parking exists and the Art Gallery, also to be moved from its present location with available parking, plus an included auditorium/convention space.

Where is the parking to be provided for this facility, which would require conservatively hundreds more spaces in addition to those already lost and more to disappear with the creation of the Elgin “greenway,” which will take way parking along the railway side of Elgin Street? 

Also, there has been mention of a new hotel for the downtown, which, of course, will require more available parking. 

There has been talk of parking structures, above or below ground, which can cost up to $50,000 per parking space to construct. For such a parking facility just to replace the 300 spaces now gone would cost in the neighbourhood of $15 million. Double or triple that for space needed for the Art Junction and to replace lost “greenway space”.

We have been told the city will be hiring a consultant (likely from outside the city of course) to examine the parking situation and to hopefully suggest practical solutions. Otherwise, we will have a downtown filled with amenities with no way to access them by the motoring public, including our senior population, of which over 80 per cent still drive.

We are waiting, and in the meantime avoid the downtown except when necessary, which is a shame, as there is much to recommend. 

John Lindsay
Chair, Friendly to Seniors - Sudbury