Traffic study offers options for adding parking spaces
Potential solutions to parking problems at the South Okanagan Events Centre can be found in some of the options derived from a recent traffic study that will be presented at an open house later today.
Of the 16 options, however, just six of them would create additional stalls, while the balance propose methods to increase turnover in lots, reduce reliance on vehicles and make it easier for drivers and pedestrians to find their way around the area.
The six options that would add parking spaces include the removal of Queen’s Boulevard – the unused main entrance to the SOEC off of Eckhardt Avenue – for a net gain of 13 spots.
The next most fruitful option would involve relocating handicapped parking at the Penticton Community Centre to gain 18 spaces.
Up to 34 spaces could be gained by removing the drainage basin in the west staff lot, although that area has been identified as the potential home of a proposed new twin-rinks facility.
For an even bigger gain, the existing lot at the corner of Eckhardt Avenue and Alberni Street could gobble up adjacent properties recently purchased by the city for a gain of 60 stalls.
Or the city could purchase land on the other side of Eckhardt Avenue and create a new 116-stall lot.
The final option presented is a new parkade of as-yet undetermined size, although the study notes a possible cost of upwards of $40,000 per stall and people’s stated unwillingness to pay to use it.
None of the other options has a price attached to it.
“We haven’t completed any costing yet as we are looking for feedback first on the concepts before we develop options in more detail,” recreation and facilities manager Bregje Kozak said in an email Monday.
Parking became a problem at the SOEC campus following construction of the new Cascade Casino Penticton, and people who responded to a survey on the matter won’t let the city forget it.
“Some of the comments received in the survey expressed frustration with the decision to place the casino on the SOEC site and offered that the pressures could have been anticipated and prevented,” says the summary attached to the parking options.
Also up for debate at today’s open house, which runs from 4-7 p.m. at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre, are a proposed regulatory framework for the sale and consumption of recreational cannabis, a draft version of the new Building Bylaw and options for disposing of biosolids from the wastewater treatment plant.
“With the exception of the wastewater solids handling review, which is still in the early stages, these topics have been discussed extensively in the community already,” city engagement officer JoAnne Kleb said in a press release.
“This open house is an opportunity to report back on what we have learned and discuss where the work is heading before the recommendations are prepared or reviewed with council for decision.”