Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Addressing parking at Harbourside

When some people hear about Concert’s plans to build a complete mixed-use community that includes places to live, work, shop and play, their attention shifts to parking concerns. The thinking is that if parking is already a concern in the area, how could more development possibly make the situation any better?

Concert is actively working with the City of North Vancouver and local businesses to find creative solutions that will not only offset the impact of new development, but in fact result in less congestion than today. This means implementing solutions both within and beyond the Harbourside site. To date a variety of possible solutions have been formulated: 


Create additional street parking spaces
  • The creation of a network of internal roads within the Harbourside site will create approximately 50-70 additional street parking stalls for public use.

Addition of underground parking
  • Underground parking for residents, commercial tenants and visitors will be integrated into the new developments and will not burden existing street parking.
  • Parking provided for new development will exceed the minimum parking requirement/bylaw standard.

Better utilize neighbouring parking lots
  • We are working with existing parking facilities adjacent to the Harbourside site which could allow for additional monthly parking stalls for those working at Harbourside.

Increase bus frequency
  • A third-party study concluded that half of those who drive to Harbourside for work live on the North Shore and typically drive less than 10 Km. Enhanced bus service could encourage some of these short-distance drivers to trade their cars for transit.
  • We are working with Translink and a third-party provider to provide supplementary service to increase bus frequency.

Spirit Trail connection
  • Concert will continue to work with the City to support the Spirit Trail connection to Lonsdale Quay. At present, a portion of this trail is under construction.
  • Because Lonsdale Quay is North Vancouver’s major transportation hub, a connected trail could encourage commuters to take transit knowing they can then either walk or bike to Harbourside.

Car sharing
  • Many existing Harbourside users require vehicles to allow for business travel throughout the work day. Some of these individuals may consider taking transit to work if a car sharing service existed.
  • The intention would be to implement a few car share vehicles today and have the fleet grow as the community expands.

If you have any other innovative ideas we may not have thought of please contact Farouk Babul, Development Manager at Concert via email at FBabul@ConcertProperties.com

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