City to consider alternative uses for parking lots

“I think we should be selling those off or offering them up for development rather than reinvesting in repairs for a parking lot that’s underutilized,” he said.

Coun. Don Cody feels the lots beside the Sask. Liquor Board store and where the Minto Apartments once stood would be useful for commercial development.

The report to council will look at the potential interest that may exist for the lots and the sale prices that could be generated.

“We’re looking at opportunities and reinvestment in our downtown by the private sector as advantageous,” Atkinson added.

Under the plan proposed by transportation and traffic manager Mohammad Kraishan, the City maintain ownership of the lots unless approached by a private developer. He, however, discourages the privatization of any of the lots, as the City would lose out on the revenue generated.

To Coun. Martin Ring, the issue of the parking lots has been left alone for such a long time that the lots are the point where they are in disrepair, which is something they’ve seen with other City assets.

But, as he indicated, the City is also losing out on potential for revenue generated from parking after hours.

“We’re starting to see some development in the downtown core and the unfortunate part is that some of these developments are spurring on some additional activity in the evenings and these parking lots are going be key, and at the same time we don’t have revenue coming from them in the evenings,” he said.

But the City will, if approved by council at the upcoming meeting, spend $64,000 to repair the Eighth Street East parking lot. The lot is the only one that isn’t paved and has an average annual per stall revenue of $595.55 per stall.

Overall, the lots generated a total of $174,999.18 in 2014. The total cost to repair and upgrade the lots over the next few years is estimated to be $939,056.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

City to consider alternative uses for parking lots

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