By Rachelle Diprose
If you build it, they will come – but only if there’s somewhere to park.
Some local parking lot owners are concerned that a change to Ottawa’s planning bylaws will make an already bad parking situation worse and will hurt area businesses.
A recent amendment to the City of Ottawa’s zoning bylaw and official plan says owners of empty pieces of land in the downtown area will be prohibited from operating temporary surface parking lots, forcing them to pay a re-zoning application fee if they want to set up a permanent lot.
Dave Duelow, manager of Centre Parking, Inc., says it’s unfair for the government not to allow property owners to set up temporary parking lots because there’s a need for more parking in the downtown core.
“If you did turn an empty lot into a parking lot, you’d probably fill up everyday because there is a bit of a parking problem downtown. The lots get full and people have to park further away from the core, therefore affecting some businesses because people will end up going to shopping malls instead,” says Duelow.
Marc Proulx, general manager of Ideal Parking, will make that argument when he heads to the Ontario Municipal Board to appeal the amendment.
“It’s not fair for the city to do that,” he says, but declined to comment further.
Some businesses do not agree with these lot owners. Temporary parking lots are not necessarily the best use of empty land for surrounding businesses, says Gwen Toop, executive director of the Somerset Street Improvement Area.
“Definitely building on an empty lot is a much better idea than just converting it to a parking lot so you can make money,” she says.
Building businesses on empty lots is important to the economic health of the area, Toop says, and while the lack of parking is an issue for the Somerset area, it’s not more important than encouraging development.
She says she sees the amendment dispute as a problem that the government brought upon themselves.
“This is the regional government’s fault,” she says. “If they would have made taxes on empty lots more conducive to not (setting up temporary) parking lots, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
Duelow disagrees, saying that taxes on parking lots are already too high. Owners are obligated to comply with other regulations, like having grass areas and planting trees which reduces the number of spots to make money on.
“Government is getting too big, “ he says. “We’re not making any more money but we don’t get a break in our taxes either. It’s not fair.”
The issues behind changing the policy are larger than taxes and shopping malls, says Charles Lanktree, an urban planner for the City of Ottawa. The city has always discouraged property owners from using empty lots as temporary surface lots and this amendment reinforces the policy, says Lanktree.
He says he questions the claim made by lot owners that there isn’t enough parking for shoppers in the city’s centre.
“All the statistics show that there’s adequate parking in the area. There is always a perception that there isn’t enough parking but there’s no proven demand,” he says.
For Duelow, the high number of cars at his garages on Cooper and O’Connor streets are proof that there is a demand for more parking.
“Go out there today and see if you can get a spot to park your car right now without getting it towed off the street” he says.
Lanktree says it doesn’t suprise him that lot owners are upset.
“This is not a simple issue,” he says. “Obviously, parking lot owners would like to continue operating their lots, following the simple financial formula that is in their own interests but the official plan is a much bigger picture.”
For Duelow, the formula is not only simple but also unfair.
“Until you build, they won’t let you open a surface lot . . . and you can’t let people park cars there and generate enough revenue just to pay your taxes.” he says. “That’s all we want to do.”