With construction underway on the new City Hall in Downtown Guelph, many short term parking spaces were eliminated to create a staging area for construction materials. This may not seem significant unless you are a merchant on Carden street.
The city is also proposing to relocate the bus transfer hub to Carden Street from the current St. George’s square location. This too will eliminate a number of parking spaces on Carden Street.
Where are your customers going to park when they are in your establishment getting their skates sharpened or while having dinner? Sure, more people will be using public transit to get around but not everyone takes the bus yet.
Staff are aware of this problem and a report is forthcoming to address this. Both the supply and demand need for short term parking and long term parking will be addressed.
In the meantime staff have responded with a positive short term solution:
“As you are aware, concerns have been raised by merchants of the Carden Street area about the reduction in parking availability with the loss of the Market Square parking meters due to the construction work of the new Civic Centre taking place.
With the co-operation of Guelph Transit, effective Monday March 26th Transit will no longer be storing their buses on the south side of Carden St between Wilson St and City Hall. This will allow parking staff to install 4 or 5 new metered parking spaces in that space which should provide convenient short term parking for the Carden Street shopper.
The bylaw amendment will be at the March 26th council meeting for approval.”