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+--- Thread: Parking in Waterloo Region (/showthread.php?tid=187)
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - Spokes - 01-22-2016
(01-21-2016, 06:50 AM)rangersfan Wrote: Article in The Record talking about a long awaited parking garage for Uptown Waterloo, that will be delayed due to the city's ability to find a developer to help fund the project. No location has been decided.
http://m.therecord.com/news-story/6241828-new-waterloo-parkade-still-years-away
Isn't the uptown parkade often half empty?
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - nms - 01-22-2016
It's always a game. The Uptown parkade was intended to provide parking for people working in the Uptown area. However, with a wide selection of free parking, many workers chose to forego the cost of a parking pass and instead dodge the parking enforcement officers.
The Uptown core is always going to have a need for a certain degree of parking. Has anyone seen general figures for how much parking (paid/free; covered/outdoor etc) is ideal for a downtown area? For instance, if even half of a 100-person workplace's staff walk/bike/transit, that still means that there would be a need for 50 parking spots somewhere nearby.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - mpd618 - 01-22-2016
(01-22-2016, 02:17 PM)nms Wrote: The Uptown core is always going to have a need for a certain degree of parking. Has anyone seen general figures for how much parking (paid/free; covered/outdoor etc) is ideal for a downtown area? For instance, if even half of a 100-person workplace's staff walk/bike/transit, that still means that there would be a need for 50 parking spots somewhere nearby.
There really can't be a single answer. It depends on a lot, especially on land value and the transportation system leading to the downtown, and there's a feedback cycle with those things. And while there have been a number of North American downtown that have improved as the amount of parking (created in the 60s and 70s) has gone down, I haven't heard of any that have hit some lower bound for reasonableness.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - Markster - 02-09-2016
Waterloo has approved new parking (a garage?) in Uptown
$10M parking investment approved. @WhaleyWaterloo, @DianeLFreeman and @bourkebrian voted against. #watbudget
— Abigail Bimman (@AbigailCTV) February 9, 2016
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - clasher - 02-09-2016
An "investment" eh? I wonder what kind of returns it will bring? I assume this will be on the former postal lands on Regina?
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - Viewfromthe42 - 02-09-2016
(02-09-2016, 11:28 AM)clasher Wrote: An "investment" eh? I wonder what kind of returns it will bring? I assume this will be on the former postal lands on Regina?
Certainly hope not! There were many, many proposals for mixed-use residential on par with 1Vic or City Centre there. To see that lot potentially become solely a parking fixture would be an utter, disgusting waste.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - MidTowner - 02-09-2016
Maybe if a parking garage is built some of the land fronting Caroline can be opened to redevelopment?
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - Markster - 02-09-2016
For a sense of scale, the 504-spot Charles/Benton garage cost $15.2 million.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - GtwoK - 02-09-2016
I don't know the politics behind city planning and whatnot, but how does something like a $10m parking garage get approved without prior public knowledge? Or even knowledge after the fact, considering it seems we still don't know where it is?
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 02-09-2016
Apparently location is still TBD, they have only approved funding so far. Which certainly does appear to be within the scope of powers of the city council.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - nms - 02-09-2016
If there are no plans or site chosen, this could also mean that if, in the future, a developer pitches a proposal, the City could offer $10 million to add below-grade public parking to the site. I believe the debate over who would pay for additional underground parking on Willis Way is among the things that eliminated the recent hotel proposal there.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - mpd618 - 02-10-2016
(02-09-2016, 09:52 PM)nms Wrote: If there are no plans or site chosen, this could also mean that if, in the future, a developer pitches a proposal, the City could offer $10 million to add below-grade public parking to the site. I believe the debate over who would pay for additional underground parking on Willis Way is among the things that eliminated the recent hotel proposal there.
I like this option a lot.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - zanate - 02-10-2016
(02-10-2016, 12:16 AM)mpd618 Wrote:(02-09-2016, 09:52 PM)nms Wrote: If there are no plans or site chosen, this could also mean that if, in the future, a developer pitches a proposal, the City could offer $10 million to add below-grade public parking to the site. I believe the debate over who would pay for additional underground parking on Willis Way is among the things that eliminated the recent hotel proposal there.
I like this option a lot.
I do too, minus that little problem I seem to keep hearing about, of the difficulty going further underground in parts of uptown.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - mpd618 - 02-10-2016
(02-10-2016, 10:05 AM)zanate Wrote: I do too, minus that little problem I seem to keep hearing about, of the difficulty going further underground in parts of uptown.
Well, the part that I care about is that it's in a mixed-use building. If the parking is above ground like in 1 Victoria, that's OK too.
RE: Parking in Waterloo Region - MidTowner - 02-10-2016
I think the parking garage on Charles was extremely well-executed. It looks attractive, and provided some new retail spaces. Waterloo would do well aiming for something like that Uptown.