Parking problem partly solved

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

A proposal that would allow developers in Iqaluit to buy parking spaces on city land instead of building them on their lots was sent back to administration on Tuesday evening, after generating much discussion among city councillors.

City rules insist that all developers who are building new property in Iqaluit include a regulated number of parking spaces. Occasionally, developers find they don’t have the space they need on their lots to comply with those rules.

To solve that problem, the city’s director of lands and planning, Michele Bertol, has proposed a cash-in-lieu of parking policy that would allow developers to purchase the required parking spaces that they can’t fit on their lots.

Bertol’s proposal suggested setting aside 42 municipal lots in the parking lot at City Hall, which could be sold to developers within a 150 meter radius of that site, for a one-time fee of $10,000. Parking for new lots outside of that radius could be developed as needed.

Discussion stalled when councillors Stu Kennedy and Glenn Williams questioned the logic of “selling” the parking spaces rather than leasing them, and then having to pay rising maintenance costs.

Bertol explained that “selling” the lots was part of the incentive.

“The city is, over time, willing to absorb the cost of this parking because it is getting a much bigger advantage of higher densities in the downtown core.”

The proposal will go back to council with more options for the councillors to consider.

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