(Pixabay.com).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Will council’s ‘bold move’ usher in a new era of city planning?

Jul 24, 2021 | 6:43 AM

‘BOLD LEADERSHIP’ has been a self-described aspiration of Kamloops City council since it took office almost three years ago. “Bold leadership for a strong, inclusive, healthy community,” says its own promotional video.

Many of its plans and reports include references to that bold leadership and “big moves.”

Seldom does any political body live up to its billing but the council actually did something bold this week. Something innovative. It wasn’t cautious. It didn’t take the easy way. It was, well, yes, bold. Several councillors even used the word.

When a proposal came before it for a major relaxation of parking-space requirements at a site on Tranquille Road across from Oak Road, council could have gone along with a staff recommendation to turn it down.

The plan is to build a six-story apartment block that will include 35 affordable housing units and five social housing units. Developer EAS Holdings wants to include only 16 parking spaces. As staff pointed out, that’s a deficit of 25 spaces, or 61 per cent, compared to what the zoning bylaw requires. (Fewer stalls are required for social housing but the other 35 would have to comply with the bylaw.)

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The City’s engineering department opposed the plan because it felt it would cause an on-street parking shortfall on Tranquille in the immediate vicinity.

That would, in turn, result in spillage onto nearby residential streets, especially Yew Street and Oak Road. This is exactly the scenario I wrote about a month ago when staff suggested looking at cutting back on parking requirements for multi-family projects as a way of encouraging affordable housing.

That’s why it surprises me that I like council’s decision to go along with the developer’s proposal and authorize distribution of a “notice of intent to consider” the plan. In general, lack of parking in the right places has, in my view, been a major failure of planning decisions in Kamloops.

But this latest proposal has a lot going for it, namely location, location, location. It couldn’t be a better fit for the concept of walkable neighbourhoods. Shopping, parks, schools, and a variety of services are within walking distance, and there’s a bus stop out front.

Affordable and social housing is, of course, an important issue and there’s an assumption that it requires less parking. This case, though, highlights the issue in a broader way — is there a place in Kamloops for no-parking housing, regardless of social standing or income?

“Missing middle” housing is a phrase legislators like to use these days. It means housing that’s somewhere between single-family houses with white picket fences, and high-rise apartments. They’re a throwback to the 1920s and ‘30s and epitomize the “walkable neighbourhoods” aspired to by Kamloops city planners.

How many people are there in the city who don’t own a car, don’t want to own a car, and therefore don’t need a place to park one? Kamloops is a city designed for the automobile, so it seems like a strange question.

But, if there’s a significant percentage of the population who are fine getting around on their bikes or their own two feet, housing without parking could become a thing given the right circumstances.

If you’ve ever been to Boston or New York, or seen the innumerable Hollywood movies shot there, you’ll have seen their famous Brownstones, those three-story multi-family buildings squeezed in beside each other cheek by jowl with their front steps directly off the sidewalks. No parking there — anyone with a car has to find a spot somewhere else if they want to live in one. Otherwise, they take a cab or the subway.

Maybe Kamloops isn’t ready for a car-less lifestyle but maybe it’s time to dip a toe in, to test it out. That’s essentially what council is doing with this decision.

Mayor Ken Christian, who voted against going ahead with the parking-variance process for the Tranquille Road project, remarked that expecting that residents will never need or want cars is a bit “Utopian.” Some residents of the building will have vehicles that can’t be parked there, and they’ll end up competing for street parking with those who are there to shop, he said.

He would have preferred telling the developer to look for off-site parking to make up the shortage or wait for expected changes to the zoning bylaw.

And he might be right. This is, indeed, a bold move. And it might be just the beginning of a change in attitude in future planning decisions. Parking is just one issue. Also on the horizon are things like smaller lot sizes in some areas (similar to what exists in the McDonald Park neighbourhood) and allowing housing in shopping centres (yes, you read that right).

These are signs of creativity and innovation that we haven’t seen before. While the term “pilot project” was used during council’s discussion Tuesday, you can’t just cancel an apartment building after it’s built.

That’s what makes this such a bold move.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to 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 Pattison Media.