Project prompts parking worries
City councillors fear commercial-residential building will impact overflow parking for Gyro Park
Parking congestion around a popular beach could worsen as a result of a new sixstorey building on Lakeshore Road, some city councillors say.
Although generally supportive of plans for the new development, which they described as attractive and well-designed, some councillors expressed concern about the loss of parking directly across from Gyro Park.
“This is an extremely busy part of the city, especially during the summer months,” said Coun. Mohini Singh.
Coun. Charlie Hodge also said he would be interested in hearing more details about parking provisions once the development moves further through the approval process.
On Monday, council unanimously approved sending the project to a public hearing for citizen comment at a meeting on Oct. 4.
The six-storey building, at the southeast corner of Lakeshore Road and Richter Street, would include street-level commercial premises, medical offices and 89 residential suites.
Mayor Colin Basran said the project had an “iconic” design and would serve well as a gateway entrance to the South Pandosy shopping district.
The city had previously owned part of the development site, and there is a 30-stall parking lot located there, designed to serve as overflow for the main Gyro Beach lot.
Those stalls will be lost when the new building goes up. But council heard the developer may be able to lease part of an adjacent parcel from FortisBC for additional parking.
“There’s enough land around the substation for maybe 50 stalls of parking,” Terry Barton, a city planner, said after the meeting. The substation itself would not be relocated. The city also has another parking lot immediately north of Gyro Park, off Watt Road. Currently, it only has a gravel surface, but there’s a long-term plan to improve and increase that site’s parking capabilities, Barton said.
A parkade that incorporates some streetlevel commercial space is one possibility, but the building’s design would be critical, Barton said.
“We wouldn’t want to see a huge, massive, ugly parkade right at the south entrance to South Pandosy,” he said.