SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 2
P&E COMMITTEE AGENDA
OCTOBER 10, 1996
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: September 27, 1996
Dept. File No. 2102-2
TO: Standing Committee on Planning & Environment
FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT: Langara College - Pay Parking Proposal
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT no decision be made on pay parking at Langara College
until completion of the public process and identification of
appropriate mitigating measures.
B. THAT, as part of this ongoing process, the College be
requested to complete a Travel Demand Management Plan to
document plans for the site and establish targets for
alternative modes of travel.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council has generally supported neighbourhood parking programs to
reduce overspill parking caused by employment generators, educational
institutions, Skytrain stations, commercial districts, and recreational
attractions, and has supported measures to limit automobile use at
major attractions.
A 1971 resolution of Council prohibited the College from charging for
parking. In 1994, Council reviewed a CD1 amendment of the site,
divided into two phases. Phase I, additions to buildings and parking,
is now complete. Phase II is to include further additions and a
parkade. Among a series of conditions for the site, Council approved
the following related to pay parking:
That Council has a willingness to consider pay parking in
Phase I, subject to approval of Council.
That, subject to Council approval, the College, as part of
Phase II, be permitted to institute pay parking on campus at
such time as Langara College has obtained an occupancy permit
for a parking structure which will provide an aggregate of
not less than 1450 spaces on campus, and subject to the
College funding the costs of implementing a resident parking
program to a maximum of $20,000 (in 1994 dollars), prior to
occupancy of the parking structure.
PURPOSE
This report reviews a request by Langara College at 49th and Ontario to
implement pay parking. Their request is attached as Appendix A.
BACKGROUND
In 1970 Langara College opened and at that time the College charged for
parking. This was unsuccessful with significant community impacts. In
1971 the City agreed to cost share in the annual maintenance of the
surface parking lots so that the College would remove their pay
parking. The City has paid for the past 25 years with the most recent
payment for 1995 of $6,750.
As parking is free, the Langara College parking lots are extremely well
used, with students and the public generally filling up the parking lot
before they look for space on the street. Even with free parking there
is overspill into the adjacent residential community as there is not
enough space to meet the demands. It is estimated that at peak times
last year there was a shortage of 400 spaces. 150 vehicles parked on
the streets adjacent to the college and the other 250 vehicles parked
in the adjacent neighbourhood.
Resident parking regulations have been installed in the community with
a mix of resident parking only (without permits) and resident permit
parking. These regulations have reduced the worst impacts of overspill
parking by spreading the problem throughout the immediate community.
Although this works relatively well, there is still parking overspill
which is an annoyance to the community. Also these regulations would
not be a good solution to address pay parking pressures.
In 1994 Langara College applied to amend its CD-1 zoning to allow a
phased expansion of its parking and facilities. Staff supported this
proposal provided certain traffic and parking measures were
implemented. These include the installation of a traffic signal at 49th
and Columbia, the provision of 300 bicycle parking stalls, and the
creation and maintenance of both carpool and bicycle commuter programs.
The College has also expanded its facilities and has enlarged its
parking lot from 1128 spaces to 1250 spaces. In addition the traffic
mitigation measures they are undertaking could further reduce parking
demand. This should reduce or eliminate the need for over spill parking
in the residential area, particularly as the college is not increasing
its student population. The college was extremely over crowded and the
expanded facilities are meant to provide minimum space requirements for
the existing population.
DISCUSSION
Staff have initiated a public process to review the pay parking
proposal and develop possible solutions to deal with the community
concerns and parking impacts. This process is well underway.
Information has been distributed to the community and a public meeting
has been held.
From these discussions it is clear that the existing resident parking
regulations need to be changed to better protect the neighbourhood. In
this neighbourhood resident parking only regulations could replace the
permit parking regulations, and in a single family neighbourhood like
this could be installed on 100% of the street space, to eliminate
outside parking on the local streets. This has been done successfully
in several other City neighbourhoods, notably around the Shaughnessy
Hospital complex.
Staff believe that these changes will improve conditions in the
neighbourhood and provide a basis for further expansions that could be
used if pay parking is to be approved. These changes should be made
before pay parking is implemented to gauge their success. This would
also give the College an opportunity to obtain community support for
its proposal.
Langara College should also consider staging any pay parking proposal.
This may involve the continued provision of some free parking within
their parking lots.
In addition to street parking concerns, there are also concerns about
parking and traffic in area lanes. With increased pressures on the
neighbourhood this can be expected to increase, and it will likely be
necessary to install no parking signing in a number of the lanes.
A potential impact area has been identified if pay parking were
approved. It would be expected that parking overspill could extend from
44th at Manitoba to 56th at Ontario. Pay parking would push many of the
people that currently park in the parking lot onto the surrounding
streets. The most recent experience of this phenomenon was at the VCC
King Edward Campus on Broadway. This neighbourhood is different from
the area around Langara, however, when pay parking was introduced a
number of years ago it greatly reduced the use of campus parking lots,
which resulted in many more cars parking off site, and much lower than
anticipated revenues for the campus. At present the VCC parking lots
are approximately half full at peak use periods.
To protect the community completely from parking impacts will be
difficult. However, staff have drafted a plan that attempts to provide
this protection. Resident parking zones would have to be installed in a
broad area outside the existing parking regulations, and most of the
existing signing would change from permit-parking to
resident-only-parking zones. This needs to be discussed with the
community. These draft regulations are illustrated in Appendix B.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
Information on the proposal to charge for parking at Langara College
was circulated to the surrounding neighbourhood, and residents were
invited to a public meeting to discuss the proposal. The meeting was
well attended by approximately 100 residents. Strong concerns were
expressed about the proposal to implement pay parking. Residents were
concerned about existing parking and traffic problems, litter and area
safety concerns, lack of past communication and neighbourliness by the
College, and increased parking pressures.
The residents felt that more protection was required to deal with
present problems and that pay parking should not proceed at this time.
Langara College feels that pay parking is needed at this time to
generate revenues to support the College. Revenues could also enable
the College, in the future, to develop a parkade that would reduce the
amount of surface parking. They also believe that pay parking will
ultimately lead to a reduction in the dependance on the automobile, by
better pricing the resource.
The College recognizes the need to work more closely with the
community to reduce potential impacts and to build community support.
It is willing to defer the implementation of pay parking until the
start of the 1997 semester; however, it would like Council to approve
pay parking now so that plans can be prepared for a 1997 start.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The cost to change and expand the signing in the existing program area
outlined in Appendix B is estimated to cost $6,200. Funds for this are
available in the Parking and Street Activities branch budget from
additional resident permit revenues. If Council ultimately approves pay
parking at Langara this cost would be reimbursed by the College as part
of the Langara rezoning in 1994, when the College agreed to pay the
costs of any required changes to the resident parking regulations up to
$20,000.
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