Dallas Road parking stalls could be lost to bike lanes

More than 60 parking stalls along Dallas Road could be lost to make way for new separated bicycle lane to be built as part of the regional sewage treatment project.

An estimated 50 stalls would be removed on the south side of Dallas between Dock and Lewis streets, along the seawall near Ogden Point, as 120 angled parking stalls are reconfigured into parallel parking, according to preliminary designs.

Mitchell Jacobson, senior transportation engineer with Watt Consulting, told Victoria councillors that space is tight on that stretch of Dallas Road.

With the restrictions of the site, it’s not possible to keep the angle parking and also have the bicycle lanes, he said. Jacobson said several options were explored, and replacing the angle parking with parallel parking was seen as the best.

Another 13 stalls on the north side of the road near Paddon Avenue could be lost as the proposed bicycle lane is shifted onto the roadway there.

The numbers were included in an update to council from the sewage treatment project team, but are subject to change as design is in the early stages.

The three-metre wide, two-way separated bike lane is to be built between Clover Point and Ogden Point as part of the sewage treatment project amenity package. Cyclists will be separated from motor vehicles and from pedestrians.

Several councillors expressed concern about the removal of so many parking spots. Coun. Ben Isitt said more parking could be retained if residential parallel parking on the north side of the road was removed instead of the angle parking. Some of the angle parking could be designated for residents, he said.

“The loss of parking is not insignificant,” said Coun. Pam Madoff. “I think all too often we think of just removing cars and we don’t think of the people who are in the vehicles,” she said, adding that the loss of the parking will mean the waterfront will become inaccessible to some people who rely on their vehicles.

“I don’t have a solution to it, but this is not a modest intervention or a modest inconvenience,” Madoff said. “Living in the neighbourhood, it’s already at capacity and overflow with the demand and the interest, and those folks are not going to get on their bikes and cycle down there or walk down there. It’s going to mean they just can’t go there.”

Coun. Margaret Lucas said taking away so many parking spaces will definitely have an impact. “People are now going around and around within the neighbourhood trying to find a place to park,” she said.

“Because we know how many people on a beautiful sunny summer day want to come down and walk along there.”

Coun. Charlayne Thornton Joe agreed, calling the area “a bit of a jewel” for the city. “So making sure that people who are visitors or bringing especially seniors down to enjoy the view we have to make sure that [parking] is a consideration,” she said.

Councillors directed staff to work with the sewage project team to report back on the parking demand between Dock and Lewis streets, to consider retaining the angle parking, and to refer the plan to the city’s accessibility working group.

The project team is scheduled to present the design of Clover Point pump station rebuild and the cycle track alignment to the James Bay and Fairfeld/Gonzales neighbourhood associations before coming back to Victoria council with a partial design in February.