City revises yaletown parking plan
New proposal sees number of spaces reduced still reduced, but to a lesser degree
The City of Vancouver and Yale-town businesses have found a mid- dle ground over how to re-arrange parking in the busy downtown neighbourhood in line with recent concerns raised by the fire depart- ment. After discussions between the city and businesses in Yaletown, angled parking on Hamilton and Main- land Streets is going to be retained instead of parallel parking stalls on the opposite side of the streets, which was the original plan. Keeping angled parking over par- allel parking won't initially change the number of spaces lost, the Yale-town Business improvement Asso- ciation's Annette O'Shea said. But she said they were "optimistic' about the revised plan, which will allow for a number of new spots to be created. "What we're really happy about is the city came back to the table ... they really heard the message of small business." The city said the message from businesses had been heard clearly. "We heard concerns from busi- nesses and residents about the pro- posed designs we put forward In January ... and have been working with the Yaletown NA and business community to explore alter- nate options that will keep as much parking as possible and meet (fire department) requirements," Lon LaClaire, the city's director of trans-portation, said in a release. The need to remove some street parking came after Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service said the sec-tions of Mainland and Hamilton with parking on both sides were too narrow for fire trucks to safely oper-ate. The BIA accepted the rationale, but was frustrated by both the pro-cess and the drastic initial proposal. O'Shea and the RIA's membership criticized the plan and said the city's consultation was next to nonexis-tent. The BIA said it understood the issues expressed by the fire depart-ment, but Insisted there was anoth-er way. The revised plan will allow for the relocation of a number of garbage bins, which will create new spac-es. There are about 200 spots In the area; the original plan would have retained 120 spots, while the revised plan will initially retain just three fewer, but the garbage bins take up room that can be repurposed for 60 new spaces, O'Shea said. "(The city) really understood it was a valid Issue," she said of the loss of so much parking. The BIA recognized many of their clients come to the area on foot, by bike or on transit, but many of the area's businesses are medical offic-es, who cater mostly to patients who are unable to come to the area In anything but a car. Drastical- ly reducing parking would greatly affect them, O'Shea said. While there will still be a reduction in parking, O'Shea said between the opening of spaces occupied by the garbage bins and efforts to add parking options on adjacent streets, things now look a little less painful. "Keeping angled parking causes the least amount of pain: she said. Yaletown is the only major area in the city where garbage has to be put out on major streets, as opposed to in back alleys or on side streets. The plan will be to modify storage areas In some buildings, getting oth-er businesses to share bins and in some cases simply moving the bins to new locations. Additionally, the city notes many of the angled spots will have to be shortened to allow fire trucks to pass. Longer vehicles will not be able to use many of the spaces and people using the angled parking still will have "to consistently park prop-erly," the city noted. The new plan will be rolled out in April and the city will evaluate how it works for as much as a year.