The City of New Westminster is taking action to demolish a part of the Front Street Parkade.
On Monday, council approved a staff recommendation to proceed with the rehabilitation of the eastern portion of the parkade and demolition of the western side of the structure. Council awarded the contract to Deramore Construction Services Ltd., which submitted the lowest of four bids and done medium and large heavy-construction projects in Canada and the U.S., including a parkade in Victoria.
Staff anticipate work on rehabilitating the eastern side of the parkade would begin in June and the project would be completed by February 2016.
“In accordance with contract tender requirements, pedestrian access on Front Street will be maintained at all times for the duration of the project,” stated the report. “Front Street and the existing frontage road will be closed to traffic for a maximum 12-week period in the later stages of the project, when the west parkade is undergoing full demolition.”
The city estimates the parkade rehabilitation and demolition will cost $7.5 million.
The decision comes despite appeals from some New Westminster residents to keep the entire parkade and use it for parking and community uses.
“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, the sow’s ear being Front Street truck traffic and the train tracks,” resident Bill Zander recently told city council. “You are not going change the sow’s ear, but the parkade is not the sow’s ear. Let’s understand what the sow’s ear is. The parkade is not an impediment, in my opinion, to Front Street or the downtown – it is in fact beneficial and an asset to Front Street.”
Instead of tearing down the parkade and building a mews along Front Street frontage road, Zander said the city should consider suggestions put forward by the Save the Parkade group, which has pushed for a noise abatement wall along the existing parkade and retention of the parkade for community and parking uses.
“Without the parkade and the noise reducing wall or curtain wall, Front Street and the mews will be, in my opinion, an expensive joke, a very expensive joke,” he said, noting 150 trucks travel the road each hour.
Once the western section of the parkade is demolished, the city plans to create a “mews” on frontage road, which would include parking, wider, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and landscaping. The mews is estimated to cost $2 million.
Zander said the city should take the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Design up on its offer to create a special research studio that would present ideas for various ways to repurpose the parkade and provide concepts to the city.
New West resident Elizabeth Mueller told council she was “dismayed” to learn part of the parkade is coming down because it provides great access from Columbia Street to the waterfront and could be a fantastic place for cultural events, live music, and more.
“The possibilities are endless,” she told council.
Coun. Patrick Johnstone said the city is spending more than $5 million to repair the eastern part of the parkade, which will then be an asset for the city in the years to come. He suggested that many of the ideas being proposed for the parkade could be considered for the part that remains standing.
“Those ideas are not off the table,” he said.
The city started exploring the possibility of removing the portion of the parkade between Sixth and Begbie streets in 2012. In 2013, council received a staff report about downtown parking and potential scenarios for removing the Front Street Parkade - and numerous letters from residents supporting the city’s plan to tear down the western site of the parkade.
“I am not OK with mayor and council spending my tax dollars on repairing and keeping the downtown parkade. It would be a waste,” wrote Jorden Foss. “We are becoming a community of walkers, cyclists and transit users. The future is not more parking; it is more community space and easier pedestrian access to shops and parks. Please consider my request and instead use my tax dollars to remove the parkade and let’s take back the beautiful waterfront that we should be showcasing.”
Kathleen McConnell said the parkade was “ugly, rundown and needs to go,” and suggested its removal could allow for better access to the waterfront and help give downtown New Westminster a new image. Daniel Fortin expressed concern that the parkade casts “daylong darkness” onto to Front Street businesses.
“New Westminster is a waterfront city,” Fortin wrote. “Why block that natural connection with a parking structure that is only 20 per cent full on a good day?"
