Parking in downtown Vancouver discussed with city council
Chad Eiken, the community and economic development director for Vancouver, and Rick Williams, who's with Rick Williams Consulting, attended a workshop with the city council recently, and provided members with information about parking in the city. Vancouver's downtown is experiencing growth, which has resulted in some trouble finding parking, but neither Eiken nor Williams sees the current situation as a crisis.
Somewhat surprisingly, Vancouver had no formal policy about parking prior to 1999; parking issues were handled individually, mostly regarding a company that wanted to increase parking to attract employees.
Williams said that at present, the demand for parking is increasing in the downtown, and that trend is expected to continue, even as parking spaces remain the same, or decrease in number. In addition, people are slow to adopt other forms of transportation such as riding a bike, and building new parking structures is extremely expensive, as much as $40,000-$60,000 per stall.
Williams added that the city's present policy puts investments in public parking into spaces for patrons while discouraging finding a solution for residential or employee parking, adding that there has been no public parking structure built since 2004. Now is the time, he believes, to reconsider city policies in light of the parking forecast. There will be a second workshop with the council on October 1.
Officials discussing issues like this can use flyer printing to keep residents informed.
Somewhat surprisingly, Vancouver had no formal policy about parking prior to 1999; parking issues were handled individually, mostly regarding a company that wanted to increase parking to attract employees.
Williams said that at present, the demand for parking is increasing in the downtown, and that trend is expected to continue, even as parking spaces remain the same, or decrease in number. In addition, people are slow to adopt other forms of transportation such as riding a bike, and building new parking structures is extremely expensive, as much as $40,000-$60,000 per stall.
Williams added that the city's present policy puts investments in public parking into spaces for patrons while discouraging finding a solution for residential or employee parking, adding that there has been no public parking structure built since 2004. Now is the time, he believes, to reconsider city policies in light of the parking forecast. There will be a second workshop with the council on October 1.
Officials discussing issues like this can use flyer printing to keep residents informed.