Residents say they are upset with the city’s downtown condo plans an area they say is slim for parking pickings.
“I don’t think there's enough parking here anyway. A lot of times I don't want to come down to downtown Kitchener because there's nowhere to park,” Bryan Menchenton, who lives in Kitchener.
As of June 16, another 124 parking spots of the Forsyth lot will no longer exist, according to the city.
The lot was sold to Andrin Homes for redevelopment. Since 2013, the city has been leasing the parking lot back from the company to offer public parking. Now they are ready to develop phase two of the Young Condos development.
Commuters are not happy with the news.
“I can try to find one of the parking lots nearby but if I want to get a monthly permit they're all full and I have to get a wait list for that,” said Devon Miller, who uses the parking lot daily.
I understand why they want all the condos but I don't think they're thinking things through as far as making things accessible. Not everyone is going to walk everywhere,” said Jeremy Rehkoph, another Kitchener resident.
The city says there are more than 3,400 off-street, city-operated parking spaces in the downtown and there are approximately another 5,000 private parking spaces.
“Transportation is a high priority for Kitchener residents and our goal is to ensure people have a range of sustainable transportation options available to them. We anticipate the launch of the LRT will have some effect on downtown parking needs,” Paul McCormick, Manager of Parking Enterprise said in a statement to CTV.
“Many downtown residents also work downtown and part of the appeal is that they don’t need a car, this trend is increasing with the significant number of residential developments currently in progress in the core.”
The city says the five parking garages in downtown were built to accommodate future growth. There are a number of other surface lots operating until they are also ready for redevelopment.
With reporting from CTV Kitchener's Heather Senoran
