There is enough parking in downtown Mission but not the right type of parking, a new study finds.
An update on the Mission Downtown Parking Study was presented to council during a special meeting on Monday (Nov. 27).
“This has been ongoing for decades down there,” Coun. Carol Hamilton said.
Hamilton worked downtown for decades and brought questions about downtown parking to City Hall years before with the same answer.
“Nothing’s changed from my lens. As far as what’s available and how we use it,” Hamilton said.
The study revealed feedback from people outside of Mission who preferred the city’s parking situation to other places like Vancouver. They found parking was easy to find and liked that it was free.
Objectives of the study included optimizing public parking to serve everyone, creating a safe, accessible and comfortable parking experience, and building a capacity to manage parking.
The study found limited medium-term parking options for visitors who need more than two hours of parking.
It also discovered limited long-term options for employees who need more than four hours of parking, requiring them to move their vehicles throughout the day. Meanwhile, a swath of long-term parking is occupied by commuters accessing the West Coast Express.
Additionally, the presentation revealed a need to change the walking experience downtown so people are more comfortable getting to their destination.
The parking study also found that the challenges will be exacerbated as the city grows without a parking management strategy in place.
“Some of the kind of issues heard in the community – the parking problem is not just a parking problem. It’s a transportation problem, it’s an affordable housing problem and mental illness problem. And these are things that kind of constrain what that parking experience is like today,” Senior Transportation Planner Victor Ngo said in a presentation to council.
Ngo’s update provided recommendations while also seeking feedback and direction from council.
Potential actions as a result of the study included bolstering parking enforcement and adjusting the management of existing public parking to provide more options for short-term, medium-term, and long-term parking.
Ideas for paid parking on First Avenue and a residential parking permit program were also floated in the presentation.
Coun. Danny Plecas had concerns with the potential paid parking.
“I know down the road when we grow out as a community…we have higher density downtown – I could see that becoming a reality,” Plecas said. “It’s something to consider to look at as we develop out. My concern is that we have to look at what kind of businesses are on First Avenue that need parking … so I’m not really a fan of that initially, especially since we do have enough parking downtown right now.”
Meanwhile, Mission Mayor Paul Horn says visitors, customers and residents should be the top priority for the parking focus moving forward. He said downtown employees parking a block north or south of First Avenue is normal and acceptable.
“I’m gonna say some things that are fairly quite candid. The first is I don’t think that there has been a uniform voice around parking for a long time. I think there’s been a vocal group of people who complained about parking but I don’t think that that group is uniform,” Horn said.
In speaking with downtown merchants, Horn says walking a block is a nice problem to have.
“I don’t think it’s up to us to make it so that people don’t have to walk a block. I’m concerned about [people with disabilities] and elders, for sure, walking up hills,” Horn said.
Coun. Jag Gill also asked for potential add-ons for specific downtown businesses to help with their customers’ parking needs.
“I know in the past, we’ve had delegations and we’ve heard from members of the community like salons or convenience stores that say ‘I should have 15-minute parking’, or ‘I should have all day parking’ or six-hour parking,” Gill said.
According to a staff report, the project team plans to incorporate feedback from both stakeholders and council while finalizing the study report in the next few weeks.
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