Mayor Clive Tolley hopes River Street West returns to its glory days of active bars and businesses but doesn’t want a plethora of surface parking spots to impede future economic development.
During a media scrum after the Jan. 29 meeting, reporters asked the mayor whether he was worried a downtown parking assessment — that will consider a taxpayer-funded parkade — would re-open old wounds, considering the construction of the Events Centre was a controversial issue more than a decade ago.
Furthermore, since parking wasn’t an issue when establishments such as The Royal and Brunswick Hotel were open, the media wondered what had changed even with the proposed development of a Hilton Hotel.
“I’m not worried about (re-opening old wounds),” Tolley said, noting he was pleased that council agreed to spend $11,150 to hire outside consultants to review area parking and provide the city with the necessary information.
Recalling his time on a committee for the Event Centre’s construction, Tolley said city hall had a parking study commissioned that showed there would never be parking problems since there were six ways to come and go from the venue.
That consultant said this accessibility was ideal compared to other communities since visitors weren’t in a compound and didn’t have to queue to leave, which would be a “wonderful” outcome.
Now, more than 4,000 people can attend a WHL playoff game or concert, park within three to five blocks, walk to the building, and then return to their vehicles and be home in 10 minutes, the mayor continued.
What concerned Tolley, though, was there wouldn’t be enough surface parking on the 0 block of River Street to accommodate coming developments. He noted that this wasn’t a concern when there were bars and hotels because there was an active taxi stand adjacent to the Brunswick.
“So hopefully we’ll get back to the days where Moose Jaw’s River Street West (is) busy with people … and maybe some of these companies like Uber and Lyft will show up as well in the future,” he said.
Tolley also hoped that council could have an “intelligent look” at the area’s future needs through the assessment. While some councillors thought the study would inevitably lead to the construction of a parkade, the mayor disagreed and said the review would just determine parking requirements.
“And if we were to think about a parkade, would it make economic sense? Would it be a good return on investment for the City of Moose Jaw?” he said.
The mayor added that while the parkade for the casino and spa is regularly busy, modern parking structures are “very, very, very expensive.”
The media asked the mayor why external consultants were required to conduct the study when city hall had knowledgeable people to do it.
Tolley agreed that staff are knowledgeable, but they’re also busy and this is an extra task. Instead, the consultants — already leading the new transportation master plan — are experts since it is their job to look at parking in different ways.
“We just heard … that we’ve got over $1 million of parking tickets unpaid. We’ve got eight individuals that owe us about $88,000,” he continued.
“So, my math says, ‘Well, that’s about $11,000 each.’ If we can collect the parking fees from one delinquent parker, we’re going to pay for our parking study. So, to me, that’s a good bang for our buck.”
The city solicitor told council that the municipality can hire a towing company to handle impounding vehicles since it does that regularly, Tolley said. So, if its staff have problems with angry residents, the company can call the police to deal with those people.
Police are already handling this issue by having provincial court declare people guilty for failing to pay their outstanding fines, he added. However, since over 80 per cent of people are “good, law-abiding citizens” who pay their tickets, it’s only 20 per cent of drivers who should worry and be held to a higher standard.
