ROTHENBURGER – How PAC 2.0 has made downtown parking problems vanish

At a public information meeting on the PAC this week, Byron McCorkell of the City brushed off parking concerns.

“A theatre is not enough of a reason to talk about a parkade,” he said. Parking in downtown Kamloops is a daytime problem, McCorkell told the crowd of about 90 people.

Council members have been repeating that refrain for the past few weeks. Coun. Mike O’Reilly, for example, this week posted this:

“No, we do not need more parking for the proposed Kamloops Centre for the Arts. To me spending upwards of $20 million so people will not have to walk more than 4 blocks would not be a fiscally responsible decision.”

It’s good that councillors are supporting the project but, of course, the decision on the PAC is not his, nor council’s, but the taxpayers’.

If building underground parking into the PAC design is not fiscally responsible, then it follows either that those who supported it in 2015 were not being responsible, or that something has changed dramatically.

In answer to a question from a resident on its current PAC page, the City responded, “The City is currently developing a Parking Management Plan to address the current and future parking needs in the Downtown, which are influenced by many factors aside from the proposed Kamloops Centre for the arts. The recommendations from that plan could range from short-term opportunities to long-term infrastructure projects, depending on the findings of the research. For example, if a business wanted to provide access to their reserved parking lot outside of regular business hours, the City could potentially facilitate this opportunity quickly.”

Translation: not to worry; we’ll figure it out later.

The business case for the 2015 plan stated, “Parking demand in the downtown core could be addressed through an underground parkade with a minimum 200 net new stalls.”

In other words, the PAC parkade was seen as not just an answer to the need for parking at PAC events, but as an answer to downtown parking needs in general.

The plan continued, “A new Performing Arts Centre with a multi-use underground parkade is a ‘smart growth’ strategy. In addition to the new Performing Arts Centre, the City of Kamloops has long identified the need for additional parking in the downtown core. Growth in retail business, commercial spaces, and amenities such as the Sandman Centre (formerly the Interior Savings Centre) and the Royal Inland Hospital have all contributed to the pressure on the existing on- and off-street parking inventory.”

Including both a PAC and a parkade in one project, said the plan, “not only makes economic and land use sense, it provides significant synergies and improves the return on investment as compared to undertaking both projects in isolation.”

It points to reduced capital costs due to only having to pay for one piece of property, higher parking revenues “as a result of day time and night time use,” and adds, “safe, secure and available parking could contribute to increased attendance at PAC events.”

Sounds like a completely responsible approach to me. That business case would seem to be consistent with long-standing experience with parking downtown, including the general opinion that not providing for parking at the Sandman Centre when it was built as Riverside Coliseum in 1992 was a big mistake.

When the new PAC plan was unveiled, I asked why parking wasn’t included this time. Ron Fawcett, the prime benefactor behind it, replied, “We think parking is the City’s responsibility.”

So, parking has been carved out of the plan, which reduces the anticipated capital cost from $90 million in 2015 to $70 million in 2020. Presto chango.

Spending on parkades is not popular so let’s squeeze it in without parking. Cost-wise, that makes it more palatable for taxpayers even though the maximum borrowing for the new project isn’t much different than the 2015 version ($45 million vs. $49 million).

But talking about apps and about opening up private parking spaces for evening use, and X number of on-street spots within such-and-such a distance doesn’t make the issue go away. Neither do lectures about the benefits of walking a few blocks. It doesn’t answer what happens on Blazer-and-PAC nights, on nights when all three PAC theatres are hosting events, or when the PAC is being used in the daytime (which it must be if it’s to reach maximum use and revenues), or having to park blocks away in extreme weather.

And it doesn’t explain the sudden change in rationale from the first referendum, when providing parking was smart growth, good economic sense and a good return on investment.

In their inexplicable haste to push forward to the April vote, and in their determination to locate the facility dead-centre in the most parking-challenged part of town, the arts centre committee and the City are asking taxpayers to vote on the project before a key factor — parking — is sorted out.

PAC 2.0 with no parking is an emperor with no clothes. The question before the taxpayers of Kamloops is whether that’s better than no emperor at all.

I worry about this project; it will be heart-breaking if it fails again. But so far, the messaging about parking — while innovative — isn’t convincing.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He writes five commentaries a week for CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER – How PAC 2.0 has made downtown parking problems vanish

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