Kristine Walkden, Centretown News
The number of restricted-parking spots in Centretown is a concern for some residents.Concerns from some Centretown seniors have helped spark a new City of Ottawa parking study that will seek to determine how many parking spaces are needed in the downtown core.
Joan Spice, a member of the Centretown Citizens Community Association’s planning committee and seniors committee, says the CCCA has been asking for this kind of study for years.
“We have actually, fairly frequently, asked the city and the committee of adjustment, before they grant these reductions in parking, to do studies.”
The concern is that parking may be reduced too much, she says. Parking has already been disappearing in the area, and while some people can switch to walking, biking or using transit, others, such as seniors with limited mobility, do not have that option.
“We just want to make sure that there’s still sufficient parking for seniors who aren’t as mobile as they used to be, they can’t walk as much or as fast as they used to, for people who are disabled, people who have their families come to visit them downtown, they need visitor parking,” says Spice.
The parking study is “one of several zoning studies the city is doing (to) make development more compatible and respectful of the existing neighbourhood character, while enhancing the good things about these neighbourhoods,” said Tim Moerman, a city planner who is leading the parking study, in an email.
Many of Ottawa’s minimum-parking rules have not been updated in more than 50 years, he added. “They were designed for a different time, and a different set of circumstances and planning goals.”
Georgia Lay, a senior living in Centretown, says available and affordable parking is essential for many people she knows.
One of her neighbours has a number of people that regularly come to help her and who need access to parking. She receives deliveries every day and has a caregiver that comes in twice a day to help her with her daily living.
“The caregivers don’t take the bus or bicycle from one client to another, they drive cars,” says Lay. “That’s how they get to see the maximum number of clients per day.”
These caregiver visits usually aren’t short, she adds. They may come in for about an hour to help their clients, and they need to park somewhere. Since many of them charge parking back to the program, expensive parking drives up the prices for their service.
“To stay in her home, she relies on these services,” says Lay. “If people couldn’t park around this building, she would have to move to some kind of institutional setting.”
Many seniors in this situation cannot afford private retirement homes, she says, and there is a long waitlist for city-subsidized retirement living.
“She depends on people being able to park for her daily life,” says Lay.
Spice says the association understands and supports a pedestrian- and bike-friendly city, but wants to ensure a balance is struck that benefits everyone.
“We just want to get some data on the current situation, and what would happen once all these developments are finished,” says Spice.
Moerman says a public consultation is planned. The city is also launching a website at the beginning of May and an open house is scheduled for September.