Town of Osoyoos council passed a “business friendly” parking bylaw amendment Tuesday that will see new business owners have to pay only $3,000 to build off-street parking instead of the current $10,000. (Keith Lacey photo)
Town of Osoyoos council has approved a “business friendly amendment” to better retain and attract new business to town.
Specifically, council approved a staff recommendation to lower the amount charged to any new business to supply parking spots from $10,000 to $3,000, reducing the number of required parking spaces for licensed establishments and further liberalizing parking requirements for businesses in the downtown core.
The current off-street parking regulations allow any person developing a property in the commercial zone the option of paying the town $10,000 for extra parking spaces they don’t provide on site.
The current bylaw also requires a licensed establishment to provide one parking space per three seats, but staff recommended lowering the standard to one space per four seats.
Special parking requirements are needed in the downtown because customers have multiple choices on where to park, said Alain Cunningham, the town’s director of planning and development.
The current bylaw states a requirement of two parking spaces for the first 55 square metres of gross floor area and one for every 55 square metres thereafter. Staff recommended and council adopted reducing that to one space per 50 square metres of gross floor area.
Staff has recommended dropping the costs to provide parking spaces for new businesses from $10,000 to $6,000, but changed their mind after Coun. C. J. Rhodes insisted council had the opportunity to prove it was being more business friendly and dropping the charges to $3,000, which had proven successful in Summerland.
‘I really like the idea of being a little more user friendly and a little more business friendly,” said Rhodes. “To really make a statement that is meaningful, I like the Summerland model of $3,000.”
Mayor Stu Wells said he had to agree and supported Rhodes’ amendment to reduce the cost to $3,000.
It has been eight years since the town has charged any business to develop new parking spaces at a cost of $10,000, but hopefully this reduced price will encourage more development and more businesses to open downtown and in other areas of the town, said Wells.
Alain Cunningham, the town’s director of planning and development, said the time has come to change the zoning amendment bylaw in relation to providing new parking spaces by business owners in town.
“We need to closely balance our requirements for businesses to provide off-street parking spaces with their actual customer demand, so that we don’t burden them with unnecessary costs, waste land and capital investments and drive up storm water management costs and heat island impacts from large surface parking lots,” he said.
“On the other hand, however, care has to be taken not to go too far by leaving customers with insufficient parking choices. With these considerations in mind, staff is proposing to fine tune our standards so that the growth rate of new commercial parking spaces opening up in the downtown would be somewhat less than under our current regulations.
“In preparation for our bylaw review, staff conducted a literature research and comparisons with other community bylaws, but went an extra step with an inventory of existing downtown parking spaces and a survey of downtown stakeholder opinions, both generally within the commercial area of our Official Community Plan.”
Staff observed Main Street parking still has significant capacity, said Cunningham.
The lower block below 85th Street is frequently at or near capacity in the summer months, but the middle block above 85th Street often contains some vacant spaces and the upper block above 87th Street is frequently no more than half full, he said.
The town’s parking lot near the corner of 87th Street and 74th Avenue is rarely used, but if council wants to retain this parking lot, some directional signage would help, said Cunningham.
“Obviously, the town’s capacity to provide more street parking is limited … as the town is not building any new downtown streets,” he said. “Council has discussed the need to accommodate more RV travelers wanting to visit the downtown area and this should be addressed in our business planning to go along with any other town parking issues.
“In concluding these observations on existing parking, it is important to emphasize that experts advise against attempting to meet peak parking demand every day of the year because of diminishing financial returns. Rather, best practice is to exclude at least the 15 highest peak days for Christmas, other important holidays and special event days, on the expectation that some people will delay or forego their trip or walk further from where they park.”
Staff is of the opinion that the results of a recent downtown parking survey and inventory provide a sufficient basis for making several business friendly amendments to the commercial off-street parking regulations, said Cunningham.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
