With thousands of condos and rental homes under construction in Coquitlam, the city is looking to reduce parking problems created by trades and construction workers looking for a place to park.
The solution, in the works for the past several weeks, is to free up underutilized civic land to create temporary parking areas near neighbourhoods with a lot of building.
Once in place, Coquitlam city lands and real estate director Curtis Scott explained trades workers are set to keep their vehicles off the street so residents won't have to put up homemade no-trades parking signs.
Parking fees from the temporary lots will be earmarked for the Land Sale Reserve Investment Fund or a park development program to fund future community amenities, Scott added in a news release.
"The initiative is part of the city's ongoing work to reduce construction impacts on residents and businesses while supporting projects that bring much-needed housing, jobs and other economic spin-offs to the community."
City land will be used for parking
Areas under consideration for temporary trades parking include unused civic lands, such as those earmarked for future parks and other amenities.
More than a dozen potential sites around Burquitlam SkyTrain station and City Centre met the criteria, which includes:
- a development time frame five or more years away
- suitable size and topography
- the need for minimal improvements
- and a location close to active or future construction areas
The city has begun contacting Burquitlam and City Centre developers to offer the potential trades parking areas while reinforcing its Good Neighbour Development Policy.
The policy was adopted in 2019 to help reduce construction impacts on neighbourhoods such as noise, parking and site cleanliness.
According to the city, the policy "puts the onus on developers to meet the guidelines and ensure that their sites, workers and trades are good neighbours to surrounding businesses and residents."
Water quality monitoring now required
The city also requires developers building near creeks and streams to install water monitoring equipment on site to avoid situations where polluted water is discharged into local waterways.
Coquitlam has issued 181 development permits in 2022 thus far, most (96 per cent) of which had up to 2,300 units of new housing, including rentals.
