Lack of parking is a constant worry for downtown businesses

JoAnn Daffern works at the Hive Home & Gifts store on Cleveland Avenue in Downtown Squamish and she is bracing to deal with a new challenge — staff parking.

Although there were three dedicated parking spots for staff behind the store, the landlord is now allowing the business only one space. Recently, she came to find a van parked on that one spot and had to circle around the block to find parking.

She did find one relatively quickly but knows that will not always be the case as parking spots become a precious commodity, especially in the downtown core.

Her employer, Melissa DeWolf, is equally worried.

“It is going to be really challenging for my employees to find parking, especially on Saturdays when we also have the farmers market on. There is also a two-hour limit, and our staff is taking a risk as district does enforcement. What are we supposed to do?” she says.

That is a question that Marie-Louise Towers, the owner of Kaos Kids, and Nancy McCartney, the owner of Garibaldi Graphics, had in their mind when they met Mayor Karen Elliott about one-and-a-half years ago.

They proposed that the district work with BC Rail so the land along Loggers Lane could be designated as staff parking for downtown business owners.

“Let’s take staff parking out of the outer bounds of the main street and put them in one area where it is dedicated to staff, perhaps they can get a permit if they are a staff person and then you would have the rest of the parking available to those coming to shop downtown,” Marie-Louise says.

McCartney says although her staff comes early, they still face the prospect of being fined by district bylaw. Moving the staff parking to BC Rail land along Loggers Lane would open parking for visitors and give some certainty to local business staff on parking.

“We have had an increase in businesses, an increase in population, and increase in condos, and now there is just not enough parking for staff,” McCartney says.

What compounds the problem, McCartney says, is that new buildings don’t have enough parking spaces, which means those who live there end up parking on any available land, including on BC Rail land along Loggers Lane.

“If you look at the whole town, every time a multi-family unit goes in, all of a sudden the streets around them are inundated with cars because the district doesn’t require enough parking, and they allow parking variances on top of it,” she says.

Marie-Louise says there are a lot of seniors and those with disabilities, as well as moms with kids who rely on the car to get downtown. There needs to be enough parking for them to access the area.

“My business relies on the 20,000 people that live in this town and my business needs all those people to be able to come downtown to shop,” she says.

As for staff parking on Loggers Lane, District of Squamish said land negotiations, including acquisition of land, were not discussed publicly to ensure that the District’s interests were not harmed by disclosure.

“This precludes the District from speaking about any negotiations that may or may not be in progress. Land negotiations become public once completed,’ said Christina Moore, district’s communications manager.

However, the district does not have any plans to create any kind of parking along Loggers Lane.

“The #Squamish 2040 Official Community Plan (20.8 d.) identifies the District’s desire to establish a multi-modal and active transportation corridor along Loggers Lane and the decommissioned right-of-way as development occurs,” Moore said.

“The District’s Active Transportation Plan also references the Downtown Squamish 2031 Transport Plan which identifies Loggers Lane as one of the major bicycle and pedestrian routes within Downtown Squamish.”

Adrian Blachut, who owns Zephyr Café and 2Chill Gelato, says downtown businesses suffer because of lack of parking downtown.

The district, he says, should ensure there is enough parking in new developments and should hold back on parking variances.

“I think we need a solution, and there is none. Up until the last year, the development permits have not included enough parking for people living in the apartments, and they have given many parking variances,” he says.

Blachut says there is no easy solution, but the council should ensure that there is enough parking in new developments, and that parking variances are not granted in the way they have been.

Meanwhile, Marie-Louie is sceptical of the district plans for a bike and pedestrian route on Loggers Lane.

“This is our truck route, and it has always been a commercial roadway, and it has seen an increase in traffic,” she says.

Nancy McCartney says it feels sometimes that the district does not even want to deal with the problem.

“District staff seems to forget that a lot of our population is still commuter and they depend on the car to do that. This isn’t Amsterdam, this is Squamish where you need a vehicle when it comes to work or to shop because we simply don’t have a workable transit system,” she says.