by Dan Mullaly
The park at the Canadian Museum of Nature and the placement of parking underground is one item that receives near universal support in the Centretown community. While support for the park is evident, even among museum management, there are several points that can be made in the context of the Community Design Plan (CDP.)
First, the draft CDP relied on the museum obtaining approval to fund a parking structure. The plan’s objective, to increase parkland, was premised on the federal government’s willingness to supply a parking facility, with the inherent benefit of a park.
The City has been woefully negligent in meeting its responsibility to improve parks and open space in Centretown. So the expectation was that the museum park could satisfy community needs and the City would not have to address the shortfall in open space. The draft plan does identify two sites for potential mini-parks, or parkettes. However there is no implementation strategy, unless one considers the slush fund the City proposes, using funds from the sale of zoning rights to developers. This revenue source is better known as the purchase of Section 37 benefits.
With fiscal restraint, it was predictable the museum would have a hard sell to argue for an underground garage as a cost-effective solution for its parking. As far as the community need for a park goes, it is a stretch to argue this is within the museum’s mandate or priorities. It brings to mind our mayor’s position on an extra LRT station in the city core. Regardless of the obvious benefits, the mayor and council both cajoled the public and the business community: “If you want it, show me the money.” Well, Mr. Watson, if the city wants a park at the museum there is a solution. And as you seem to appreciate, it takes money.
The truth is there are a number of ways the city could accomplish this. On the city’s website, until a week ago, there was a report on the subject of cash in lieu of parking. Much like the blog on the CDP, which has been closed to comments for six months, this file has been inactive for close to two years. Until its removal from the consultation agenda, the intention was to present a report and recommendations to Council “in the spring of 2010.”
Because the study lacked substance, it is not surprising that its fate has been cast into doubt. But the report did point out that, during the past 10-plus years, the city has done two things with respect to the parking requirements set out in the zoning bylaw. On the one hand, it has collected over a million dollars in cash payments for parking that was never provided. On the other hand, it has totally waived the requirement to provide parking or cash in lieu of parking that would have amounted to millions of additional dollars to the parking fund. A recent example is the approval of the condominium on Catherine Street, where the developer asked for and was given an exemption from providing 52 parking spaces, without further obligation.
This scenario is repeated every time a new development is approved in Centretown. The developer avoids the cost of providing parking at a cost of $10-20,000 per stall, and the City receives no compensation, as is provided for in the zoning bylaw. If even $1,000 per stall had been collected during the past 10 years, the City would have been able to fund a substantial parking structure at the museum, below the park.
So we have the City failing to meet its responsibility to provide adequate park space in Centretown. Meanwhile it is approving developments at a furious pace, without taking advantage of an opportunity to collect revenues to meet a parking shortfall in the community. Then, to add insult to injury, the millions of dollars generated in new property tax revenues from developments are spent on services in suburban communities. As a final stroke, under Section 37 of the Planning Act, developers are buying the right to build beyond the defined limits. In this “cash for zoning uplift” scenario, the City, in its rush to get its hands on “free money,” is prepared to approve an additional 18 storeys of development for a windfall of $10,000 per storey and granting exemptions for a multitude of other zoning provisions.
It is convenient to address outrage and indignation toward the feds for not putting in underground museum parking, as George Dark did at the public meeting. But let us not lose focus on the responsibility of our own local government to meet its obligations to the community. For too long the City has been prone to blame others for its shortcomings. In this instance, it should not be permitted to dodge responsibility for finding a solution to a local issue.