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New gity parking strate.gy could mean the end of free parking in Waterloo‘s core Pay and display ree parking has always been Fone of the big draws for conâ€" sumers to the uptown core, but the city‘s new parking strategy could have shoppers paying before they even enter a store. A new ‘uptown parking strategy released by city staff last week included paid parking as one of the recommendations to increase the number of spots in the core. The report, which was presentâ€" ed to city council Manday night, is a fundamental shift in the city‘s uptown parking philosophy, said Doug Robertson, the executive assistant to the city‘s chief adminisâ€" trative officer. "There are real, strong underlyâ€" ing ideas behind the parking strateâ€" gy recommendation," Robertson said last week. Those principles include enviâ€" ronmental, financial and planning concerns, he added. â€" The city currently controls almost 2,500 parking spots in the uptown â€" 70 per cent of the total supply, according to a consultant‘s report. _ Most of that parking is at street level, either on the side of the road or in paved lots. _ One of the main themes of the report is increasing density in the uptown â€" building up instead of out. The city‘s Regina Street lot is scheduled for redevelopment as part of a new parking By GrEG MacDonaiD Chronicle Staff These lots are some of the only development sites left in the uptown, meaning they are prime locations to increase density and consolidate parking, Robertson said _ That means building multiâ€"level parking decks on existing cityâ€" owned lots, he added. The report calls for the conâ€" struction of three new garages with between 400 and 750 parking spots each in the next 15 years. These garages are recommendâ€" ed to be built on the Waterloo Town Square south lot, the city hall parkâ€" ing lot and on an unspecified lot north of Erb Street and east of King Street. "They talk about it in Kitchener, but the battle for King Street is already underway." â€" Marion Weber f Owner of the Paper Tree The report also suggests buildâ€" ing two 100â€"spot singleâ€"level decks on the Dupont Street lot and the Waterloo Town Square north lot. The addition of more than 1,000 new spots over the next 15 years could mean big changes for the uptown, Robertson said. â€"The extra parking could ignite development in the core, creating CITY NEWS 610,000 square feet of office and commercial space, as well as 210 residential units, according to the consultant‘s report. "The upto-wn will look like a very different place assuming all this comes to fruition," Robertson The cost of implementing the new strategy is estimated at between $40 million and $46 milâ€" lion over the next decade and a half. The tax revenues from the potential development could amount to about $1 million a year. Since there is such a high price tag associated with the parking strategy, staff wanted to create a selfâ€"sufficient parking plan, where the money needed to operate the system would come from revenues generated by it "One of the underlying princiâ€" ples of this report is to look at improving the efficiency of managâ€" ing the (parking) program," Robertâ€" son said. That‘s why city staff built in measures to generate parking revâ€" enues. Currently, municipal parking in the city‘s core is free for one or two hours. Converting to a paid system is likely to be controversial, but instead of parking costs being spread out among all taxpayers, they will be concentrated on only users, Robertson said. > There are thoughts of moving strategy approved Monday. REG MACDONALD PM the parking management out of direct city control and creating a Waterloo parking authority. While many of the operating costs would be covered by user fees, paid parking is only part of the solution, Robertson said. Developers could also have the option to forgo parking requireâ€" ments on their land if they pay a fee to the city, which would then go into a reserve fund which would fund more parking spaces. But some uptown retailers think the city is heading down a dangerâ€" ous road by replacing convenient parking with garages. Marion Weber, owner of the Paper Tree on King Street, thinks the city is taking away vital parking by constructing a new public square in the parking lot in front of the Waterloo Town Square. Now Weber is concerned cusâ€" tomers will have to park farther away and walk to shopping, a large inconvenience. But the addition of paid parking might make a visit to the uptown one that many conâ€" sumers will be unwilling to make. "This is Waterloo. If people come and have to pay for parking, they‘ll get it free somewhere else," Weber said. WATERLOO CHRONICLE + Wednesday, May 14, 2008 * 3 Weber also believes that the city is ignoring business concerns about uptown development. _ Instead of playing up the shopâ€" ping available in the uptown, the city is trying to add destinations to an area that already is a destinaâ€" tion, she said. "The council and planners do not credit business with how they attract people to the uptown," Weber said. "They don‘t get it." Teresa Huegle, owner of Angie‘s Kitchen in the uptown, is also conâ€" cerned about the city‘s parking While unique shopping has driven business to the area, free and accessible uptown parking has also been part of the draw, she said. Replacing the parking in front of Waterloo Town Square with a pubâ€" lic park will reduce the area‘s comâ€" petitiveness, she said. â€" "Every mall has a parking lot in front of it. This one won‘t," Huegle Her neighbour Weber is afraid that the parking strategy could be the final straw that sends the uptown in a downward spiral. _ "They talk about it in Kitchener, but the battle for King Street is already underway," she said.