Dan Mitchell, left and Heidi Lee, vice president and president of the Esther Short Neighborhood Association, respectively, and downtown residents and business owners, walk through the Vancouvercenter garage. They and other downtown residents are upset by limited parking in the garage. (Ariane Kunze/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Some downtown Vancouver residents are frustrated that hundreds of people, including some of their neighbors, are on a waiting list for parking spaces when nearly the same number of spaces are sitting empty.
Heidi Lee, president of the Esther Short Neighborhood Association, said parking is limited in downtown Vancouver, so residents of several downtown buildings depend on the city-owned, underground Vancouvercenter Park ‘n Go Garage for parking.
But she said some downtown residents are frustrated about the 200 spaces in the garage that have been closed to make room for construction of a fourth Vancouvercenter tower, which is on hold for the foreseeable future, while more than 200 people are on a waiting list for parking permits.
Lee said she always buys a new permit well before the old one expires. But she said some residents didn’t renew in time or they moved in after the waiting list was created. Now those people have to wait in line, which makes her feel that the people that live downtown are getting overlooked.
“I would like (the city) to commit some parking spaces and have a little bit of respect to the people that live and work here, rather than catering to those who come in from out of the area,” Lee said.
The garage is beneath Vancouvercenter Apartments, next to Esther Short Park, between West Eighth and West Sixth streets. The garage has 809 parking spaces; 667 are available for public parking. The rest are owned or leased by Vandevco, the developer of Vancouvercenter, for that building’s tenants.
Currently the city has a waiting list of between 200 and 250 people wanting to park in the garage; some of them are downtown residents, but their living proximity isn’t getting them special treatment.
Carmen Caraballo, secretary-treasurer of the neighborhood association, said getting a parking permit was easy when she moved here three years ago.
“Then earlier this year, we stated getting complaints from people that were buying condos and finding out there was no parking,” she said.
Caraballo said some downtown residents have resorted to parking on the street and feeding the meter, and occasionally getting parking tickets, while others have had to find other places to put their cars.
“There’s people that want to live downtown, but they have the expectation that they’re going to have somewhere to put their car,” she said.
New challenge
The high demand for parking spaces in downtown is a new phenomenon for the city. The city closed about 200 parking spaces in the garage last year, to make room for work related to the construction of a fourth tower at Vancouvercenter by Vandevco.
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“We didn’t want to sell a (parking) permit then have construction begin then refund the permit,” said Mike Merrill, Vancouver Parking Services manager. “So we started reducing the permits.”
But the project is on hold until a lawsuit against the company’s owner is resolved. The project missed its soft deadline of Oct. 31 to begin construction on the fourth tower. It’s not clear if or when construction will begin, and yet the wait list remains.
Merrill said inquiries about parking in the garage started coming in right around the same time the city closed the parking spaces. Even businesses that weren’t located around the building wanted to rent parking spaces.
“We have never used a waiting list for that garage since it was built,” said Merrill. “For most of the time, it’s been: ‘How do we get more people to park in this garage because no one is parking in there?’ ”
As to why current residents of the parking garage aren’t given preferential treatment for parking spaces, Merrill said in an email the garage “was financed by the city of Vancouver as a public parking facility. As a public parking facility, the city of Vancouver operates the garage for use by the general public, which would include anyone who lives, works, or operates a business at Vancouvercenter.”
He pointed out the agreement the city has with the developer allows Vandevco to provide one reserved parking space on a gated level of the garage to residents in owner-occupied condominiums.
Merrill said the city invested in a handful of parking garages downtown to spur economic development, but it never intended to stay in the parking garage business. The investments helped spur growth and create jobs downtown, but the garages have never made money directly.
“In fact, the general fund subsidizes the parking fund by $1.25 million each year for capital and debt expenses,” he said. “I think it’s always been the intention to get out of the off-street parking businesses at some point.”
Steve Horenstein, general counsel of Vandevco, said he hasn’t heard if the owner plans to purchase the building or not, pointing to the fact that the company has a few years before it has to make the decision.
Either way, there’s always been the expectation that tenants of Vancouvercenter would have adequate parking.
But in light of the development happening in downtown Vancouver and along the waterfront, limited parking is an issue that’s not going to go away.
“I don’t view it as only a Vancouvercenter problem, it’s a downtown parking problem, and we’re all going to have to come to grips with it,” Horenstein said.
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