Mo’ money, mo’ downtown parking

London drivers will soon have a few more places to park their cars downtown. On Monday, the City of London approved a plan for Tricar Group to bring 300 parking spots to the downtown core at King and Ridout Street.
“It is generally acknowledged that we do not have enough downtown parking,” Paul Hubert, city councillor for ward 8, stated. “When Tricar Group built the two towers we lost 400 downtown parking spots. Really what we are looking at is putting some of those parking spaces back.”
The plan to reinstate these parking spaces has been met with criticism. Councillor Judy Bryant noted the city seems to be jumping the gun.
“The downtown parking issue has been studied in the past a few years ago. That report is now out of date,” she said.
“I do think one thing that is required is monthly parking for people who are coming into work. That’s what is in the report—but we haven’t updated that,” Bryan added.
However, Tourism London and Downtown London are approving of the plan to put the parking spaces back. With events like the Tim Hortons Brier bringing many people to the John Labatt Centre, an inadequate amount of parking spaces is a severe problem.
John Winston, general manager of Tourism London, noted, “There is a paucity of parking spaces in the core. The addition of another potential 300 parking spots would be very beneficial.”
Janette MacDonald, manager of Downtown London, acknowledged, “It is a very smart thing to do. The city is not building [the parking garage], the city is going to rent it [from Tricar].”
Yet while these additional parking spaces may be good for downtown businesses, how the city will pay for these parking spots is an important issue. The deal is expected to cost $500,000 of taxpayer money per year.
One idea involved increasing the price of parking tickets in order to accommodate the cost of the new parking complex. However, this idea has been met with criticism as it would be counterproductive to increasing business in the downtown core.
MacDonald disapproved of the idea. “I really hope that won’t be the case because that won’t help us—that’ll hinder us,” she said.
Winston shared MacDonald’s concerns. “When you get a $20 parking ticket, you are not exactly enamoured with coming into the downtown core knowing that you potentially could be fined for doing your business or shopping in the core—we have had numerous complaints about that.”
However, Hubert asserted this idea has not even come forward yet. “What we have asked to have happened is there to be a downtown parking or working group. That group has not yet and it needs to be reformatted and we need to update the status of our parking and what is cost appropriate,” Hubert said. “Then we will look at how we fund it—there has even been some discussion as to whether we should be looking at establishing a parking authority as they’ve done in other municipalities.”
With funding and the value of these new parking spaces still uncertain, the dialogue between the London’s downtown core and City Hall will remain central in maximizing the value of parking.