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Economic development in downtown stalled by lack of parking

Downtown officials say deficits in the public parking inventory in the heart of the city is stalling economic development
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Downtown Guelph has a major parking problem. Economic growth in the heart of the city is impeded by the lack of it.

Officials say there is space downtown to accommodate new businesses with hundreds of workers, but those workers tend to drive cars. There is currently a waiting list numbering up to 300 for parking permits in existing city lots. Office spaces goes unoccupied as a result.

Marty Williams, executive director of the Downtown Guelph Business Association said the blend of residential, entertainment, and business components in the downtown have made it a vibrant place.

But all that vitality has put a lot of pressure on the downtown parking inventory, Williams and others said. Business growth in the downtown is stalled because there is no place for people to park, and parkers are flooding neighbourhoods near the downtown with their vehicles.

Ian Panabaker, Guelph’s general manager of downtown renewal sees the lack of parking are an impediment.

“We haven’t actually increased the inventory for downtown since 1982,” said Panabaker.

Back then the city’s population was about 70,000. The population is closer to 125,000 now, and more people have moved into the core recently to occupy new condominium complexes.

“Downtown is not suburban, its urban, and there are always going to be constraints,” Panabaker said. “It’s exciting and there is lots of stuff to do. But we have reached a point where we have outgrown the system, and are kind of behind the 8-ball. We have a deficit in the inventory and we can’t support all the economic development we want.”

The 2016 budget approved funding for the construction of the multi-level Wilson Street parking structure, which will go to tender at some point this year. Once built, that structure will relieve some of the pressure, but far from all of it. The redevelopment of a parking lot on Neeve Street appears to be at least two years off.

The city’s strategy for tackling the problem is outlined in its parking master plan, http://guelph.ca/plans-and-strategies/parking-master-plan/ .

“We are seeing upper storeys of downtown buildings not leasable,” Panabaker said. “As we are trying to grow the economy of downtown, we need to support the parking inventory. The first step of this master plan process is dealing with the logjam that we have.”

The parking problem is one of the consequences of success, said Williams. As more people live, work, shop and play downtown, more traffic naturally flows into it. During regular business hours, when the bulk of that traffic pools in the downtown, finding space is a hassle.

Williams has been with Downtown Guelph for five years, and the parking problem has always been there over that time.

“There’s always been a shortage of parking, and the shortage is most prevalent and obvious from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday,” he said. “People tend to think that the downtown is only about shops and restaurants – the street level businesses. There are 6,000 people who work in full-time jobs in downtown Guelph.”

He said only a few enterprises have their own assigned parking. Mostly, they all compete with each other for available public parking.

The city is responsible to provide public parking in the downtown, but it has not kept pace with the demand. And when a company wants to set up or expand in the downtown, their efforts are stalled by a lack of that public parking.

“Unfortunately, the city hasn’t been adding to the inventory of that kind of parking,” Williams said. “We have a situation where all the lots are basically 85 per cent full of permit parkers. You can’t hand out more permits because the occasional parker wouldn’t be able to find a spot.”

The overflow of vehicles into residential neighbourhoods on the perimeter of the downtown causes traffic and parking woes for those who live there, he said.  

Williams said there are multiple office vacancies that can’t be filled because there is no parking.  Those spaces won’t be occupied unless there is more parking.

“No matter what people believe - that the world is going to turn into people walking and taking their bikes - the city of Guelph is a net importer of jobs,” he said. “More people come into the city from outside the city to work than leave the city to work elsewhere.”

The parking problem, he said, “absolutely is” an impediment to the development of the downtown.

“We have a shortage. We need more,” Williams said. “Pronto, we need to build the Wilson Street and Neeve Street parking structures. We need to tell people who are starting up new businesses that they can find new parking for their staff. If we can’t do that, they are going to locate somewhere else.”  

Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie said he and council pushed to have city staff look at developing parking inventory on Wilson, Neeve and Baker streets at the same time, perhaps in partnership with the private sector.

“Could we save more money by doing more now?” he said. “I know staff is looking into that, which is exciting.”

He agrees that Wilson Street will only address the backlog. But other parking structures will contribute to economic development, and to a fuller utilization of the city transit hub.   


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Rob O'Flanagan

About the Author: Rob O'Flanagan

Rob O’Flanagan has been a newspaper reporter, photojournalist and columnist for over twenty years. He has won numerous Ontario Newspaper Awards and a National Newspaper Award.
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