Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Why Victoria ignored guidelines and gave go-ahead to use Old Town lot for parking

The need for parking has trumped planning guidelines, as Victoria councillors agreed to allow a vacant lot to be repurposed as a parking lot. City staff had recommended against issuing a three-year temporary-use permit so the lot at 635 Chatham St.
VKA-635Chatham-4934.jpg
The vacant lot at 635 Chatham St. Councillors approved issuing a permit to Robbins Parking Service to turn the lots into a 38-stall parking lot for three years.

The need for parking has trumped planning guidelines, as Victoria councillors agreed to allow a vacant lot to be repurposed as a parking lot.

City staff had recommended against issuing a three-year temporary-use permit so the lot at 635 Chatham St. could be used as a parking lot, saying the use is inconsistent with the official community plan, the downtown core area plan and Old Town guidelines, which encourage active uses of properties in Old Town.

Councillors agreed last week the need for parking, especially during this period of active construction, is too great. They approved an alternative recommendation to issue the permit to Robbins Parking Service to turn the lot into a 38-stall parking lot for three years.

“This is absolutely imperative that we do this. It is a temporary-use permit. It’s why we have a temporary-use permit ability,” Coun. Margaret Lucas said.

“We are desperate for parking for our businesses in our downtown, and workers who are also trying to find places.”

Coun. Pam Madoff reminded her colleagues that the building that had occupied the site before a fire that led to its demolition was derelict and no attempt had been made to rehabilitate it or rent it out.

“At a time when we’re seeing tremendous interest in restoration, rehabilitation and new construction in Old Town, one would think that there would be a more visionary thought to the appropriate use of this particular piece of property,” Madoff said, adding that there should be no guarantee of renewal of the temporary-use permit.

“I feel I’m really between a rock and a hard place,” she said. “Most of my principles say: No, don’t support this. But with the challenges we’re facing in the downtown with the shortage of parking, I think for three years it’s something we can support.”

Madoff said there are estimates that 1,800 private surface parking spots have been lost in the past decade to new construction.

Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe said if the permit wasn’t granted, the property would sit vacant until a development came along.

Coun. Marianne Alto agreed a parking lot is not the use that’s wanted there for the long term, but said: “Not only will it provide some much-needed parking, but it will also make this particular site a little more attractive for the short term.”

Mayor Lisa Helps said she supported the temporary-use permit because of a need to fill the parking gap downtown. Local parking experts say there’s a shortfall of about 400 parking stalls downtown, Helps said.

The 38 Chatham spots, along with about 60 to be provided through a recently approved development, reduced that to about 300, she said.

“Our director of finance recently provided some information that there are about 150 to 200 spots of on-street parking that are out of commission because of all the construction. So even if we estimate that at the low end, that takes us down to a gap of about 152 parking spots that are missing from what we need to service the downtown,” Helps said.

“So I appreciate this temporary-use permit and anything else that might come forward as short-term measures, quite literally on a spot-by-spot, case-by-case basis to get down from 400 and I guess up to 400 to the number of spots that we need to keep our downtown at least vibrant for those that need to drive into town.”

In a later interview, Coun. Geoff Young said it makes no sense to talk about parking shortfalls without looking at pricing.

With city parkades hitting capacity many days, it might be time to increase parkade long-term parking rates or reduce or eliminate the first-hour-free provision in parkades during peak hours, Young said. “The parkade full on a regular basis is just not acceptable in my view.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com