A decision on removing parking meters in front of Gateway Mall will be slightly delayed. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

City Hall

City plans to remove parking metres in front of Gateway Mall

Aug 9, 2022 | 2:13 PM

A decision on removing some parking metres on 15th St. West in front of Gateway Mall will face a slight delay.

Council delayed a decision in order to talk further with mall management following a request from Councillor Dawn Kilmer to examine the impact.

“It’s that tug of war between the traffic flow and the master plan versus economic development,” said Kilmer.

In previous years when Sears was a tenant in the mall, the 12 parking metres on the street earned over $11,000 annually in revenue.

Following the closure of Sears in 2017 revenue dropped to less than $60 in the last 18 months.

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Staff said the revenue from the meters no longer justify keeping them.

“When we looked at the usage of those 12 parking stalls by the old Sears, there was almost zero usage,” said Mohammad Kraishan with the Public Works department.

At the same time, the volume of traffic that uses the street has reached almost 29,000 per day. While some parts of 15th Street have been widened to three lanes except for the few blocks between Second Avenue West and First Avenue East where there are only two lanes.

Because of the lack of usage, the department did consult the mall but also talked to the adjacent properties.

The next question for council was how removing the parking stalls would impact the mall’s ability to rent out the location in the future.

Councillor Blake Edwards said that they need to consider the revenue from when the Sears was open.

“I think those are important numbers because we want that large portion of the mall rented out. That’s good for the city,” he said.

He added that drivers have dealt with the current situation for years and could continue to do so.

Another consideration is that both the police and fire departments are located in that area and rely on 15th Street for quick access around the city.

The fire department has already said it approves of the change and thinks it could help improve their response times during high traffic times of day.

Police said that the changes would not impact their ability to operate, nor did the YWCA.

The Gem Denture Clinic has some clients use the paid parking meters but, according to the city staff investigation, those meters are still under-used.

Rather than decide on Monday, council opted to send it back to the next executive committee meeting and have staff talk to mall management in that time.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow