NO PLACE TO PARK
Parkades in downtown Charlottetown full
Drivers hoping for a monthly pass for any of the three parkades in downtown Charlottetown may be out of luck.
The Charlottetown Area Development Corp. (CADC) says it will not be selling monthly parking passes or accepting names for waiting lists for spaces at Queen, Fitzroy and Pownal parkades for the foreseeable future.
Nicole Dollar is one of the lucky ones. She acquired her parking pass through her company and has been parking at the Fitzroy Parkade beside her job at the Atlantic Technology Centre (ATC).
“Before, however, when I worked for another company that used to be at the ATC, I had to park on the street as they did not provide parking,” Dollar said.
This was frustrating for Dollar and involved a lot of moving her car around during the day as the free parking spaces on the street are only for two hours at a time.
“I am happy that my company pays for my pass. However that being said, it is tough to find a spot in the morning," she said, noting if she arrives after 8:30 a.m. she usually has to park on the roof as the other floors are filled.
On at least one occasion last winter, Dollar and her colleagues were not due to work until 10:30 a.m. and had to find spots at Queen Parkade instead because Fitzroy was filled.
“This is not OK, considering we pay to park at Fitzroy not the others. If one pays for a spot, we should be guaranteed it,” she said.
"My work pays for 10 spots. They should keep those 10 spots open even if we aren't there that day... if they sell out all of the daily spots, they shouldn't keep selling them and making monthly pass parkers go to other parkades.”
But Ron Waite, general manager at CADC, says it's not that simple. And the problems may only be getting worse.
“There are parking spaces (in the parkades), we wouldn’t fill them with monthly parkers, but we do need some element of daily parking available,” said Waite.
Waite says these problems are occurring because all three of Charlottetown's parkades are reaching capacity and waiting lists are in the hundreds.
“We have roughly about 300 parkers on waiting lists in the city right now,” said Waite.
Waite said that of the three, the Queen Parkade has always had a waiting list as it is the smallest and most centrally located.
People have been on the waiting list for years, said Waite.
The Fitzroy Parkade, on the other hand, has only recently stopped accepting names for yearly parking passes, even with Charlottetown Area Development Corporation starting construction of 70 new spaces.
All 70 spaces are already spoken for.
Waite couldn’t comment on whether there will be any new parkade projects being considered for construction and said it is a financial decision made by the City of Charlottetown.
He noted that new parking garages can end up costing the taxpayer millions of dollars. The average cost of a single parking space ranges anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000. So a normal parking garage of 500 parking spaces can run the city up to $20 million.
“You can understand why the
city would want to ensure that they have substantial demand for a building.”
Even building up on existing parkades, which were built on national building code standards of the time, would have to be updated to current national standards.
This option can be even more expensive because of the substantial work that would have to be done on the foundation of the parkades.
But Waite understands the frustrations drivers face finding a spot near work, appointments or shopping.
“Without parking in the downtown, it may stifle more densely populated buildings,” said Waite.