City of Powell River officials have a second opportunity to create a welcoming, attractive space on a vacant lot that is currently neither.
Marine Area Business Association (MABA) approached the city last year with its idea to put a town clock on the southeast corner of Marine Avenue and Alberni Street. The concept included landscaping and benches, which would improve the appearance of the lot, located at one of the busiest intersections in the city.
First Credit Union had a similar idea in 2008, but without the clock. The credit union approached city council with a proposal to develop First Park, to commemorate its 70th anniversary. The idea was the park would honour and celebrate the community’s firsts, as well as improve the vacant property.
Then, as now, concerns were raised about parking. Employees and business owners in the area use the lot to park their vehicles during the day. Although the city owns the property, it has not developed it as a parking lot and people pull up and park for free all day.
Back in 2008, council-of-the-day referred the idea to the 2009 budget deliberations. Some business owners in the area, as well as Powell River Chamber of Commerce, opposed the concept because, in their opinion, parking was more important than a park. The credit union eventually pulled its idea, because it wanted to create a park, not controversy.
This time around, city staff put together a mixed-use plan that includes the town clock, some seating and landscaping and parking. In preparing the proposal, staff undertook a parking inventory. They divided Marine at Burton Street and looked at how many parking spaces were required north and south of it. They counted all the existing parking spaces and discovered that there are more than the required number south of Burton, but fewer than required north of Burton.
However, based on opinions from participants at last week’s public meeting about the staff proposal, most people prefer to see a park and no parking on the lot. There’s some speculation that Powell River residents are spoiled when it comes to parking and if there are no spaces within metres of their destination, a hue and cry results that can be heard all the way to city hall.
Revitalizing Marine is still seen as important for the community and developing this vacant lot into greenspace with a town clock as a feature would be a good step in that direction. The city has an opportunity to partner with MABA and make an improvement to a busy corner that will reflect well on the community. Hopefully, elected officials will listen to the public this time around and make the right decision.
