Downtown parking becoming increasingly scarce

There won't be enough parking space in the downtown in the future unless the city finds a way to either reduce demand for parking or increase the amount of parking available, a consultant told city council's policy committee Sept. 22.

“During the peak hour of the day, 10 a.m, downtown core streets are effectively at capacity for parking,” Stuart Anderson, a consultant with IBI Group, said.

His firm prepared a strategic parking report for the policy committee.

Parking in off-street lots is also nearing capacity in several municipal lots.

With the strong possibility of future population growth and the planned revitalization of the downtown, there will be more demand for parking than supply, Anderson said.

That means either the city needs to either build a vertical parking building or reduce the demand for parking downtown by encouraging more Sudbury Transit and bicycle use.

A letter by John Arnold, chair of the Downtown Village Development Corporation, said the lack of convenient parking inhibits business attraction and residential growth in the core area.

Building a parking building would cost $5 million to $6 million to provide 250 parking spaces, or up to $10 million for 350 parking spaces, Anderson said.

The already owns 2,500 parking spots which generate $1.4 million in gross revenue, or $200,000 per year net. A new parking building could be funded from monthly parking rates and by increasing rates in other parking lots, he said.

He pointed out that city parking lot rates tend to be lower than private parking lots rates, and are a bargain compared to buying a monthly transit pass.

To reduce the pressure on these parking lots, he recommended the city increase its monthly parking rates to about what it costs for a transit pass.

Several councillors, including Ward 2 Coun. Jacques Barbeau and Ward 1 Coun. Joe Cimino, said they felt they needed more time to examine the report and stakeholders in the downtown needed to be consulted before any recommendations are approved.

Cimino said the report should look to the areas bordering the downtown and promote walking, cycling lanes, scooters and increased transit use.

Ward 8 Coun. Ted Callaghan said the city had spent $72,000 on a report that lacked proper consultation with stakeholders and the public. Anderson said a consultation session was arranged for Sept. 23.

Callaghan said decisions on the report should be deferred until the consultation meeting was undertaken and more information obtained for councillors.

He suggested the report go into more depth on park and ride programs where people park their cars and board an express bus to the downtown for work or shopping purposes.

Callaghan's motion to defer the report until it was more complete passed.