Sunday morning services line Eccles Street with cars that don’t fit in the church’s parking lot.
Many churches in Centretown have very small parking lots, some don’t have a parking lot at all. And that’s a problem.
“I don’t know if there is a solution,” says Eric Darwin, president of the Dalhousie Community Association. He is especially worried about the Chinese Alliance Church at the corner of LeBreton and Eccles Streets.
“Their congregation is parking on the streets, because there are not enough parking lots. Sunday morning looks like a traffic jam. It looks like a Thursday night during rush hour,” he says.
One resident, who preferred to remain anonymous, lives on Bell Street, behind the church. She says it is crazy on her street on Sunday morning.
“You are lucky if you can park here in the weekends. But I don’t have problems with it. It is part of living in the neighbourhood.”
The church has access to about 80 spots every Sunday, including at the Somerset West Community Centre, for a congregation of about 460.
William Lei, general management elder of the church, says the church has a bit of a parking problem in the wintertime, but not in the summer.
“Overall, I think we can handle it,” Lei says. “This problem has been solved by offering our parking facility to the SWCC for daily Monday to Friday use in exchange for their whole parking lot every Sunday. We will be able to allocate more parking spots in the near future.”
The solution to the parking problem is for more churches in Centretown to use the parking lots of nearby organizations.
“Parking is always an issue in Chinatown. That is why we teamed up with SWCC so they can use our parking lot during the weekdays,” Lei says. “Many of our neighbours also use our parking facilities from time to time, so we have been able to help the community a lot.”
Another issue for the DCA is that the church also wants to build a second worship hall. DCA members expressed concern about safety issues for the very narrow street and the undersupply of parking for the new building.
The plan for the new building is not yet finalized. “It will definitely help to solve a lot of parking problems in the future,” says Lei.
Underneath the new building, the church is planning to add 30 or more parking spaces.
The DCA is meeting with the Chinese Alliance Church the next few months, to discuss options about the new building.