Council flags parking concerns before sending proposed Brown Ave development to public hearing

Maple Ridge residents will have the opportunity to share their opinions on a six-storey residential building that council recently sent to public hearing.

The 22551 Brown Ave. development would contain 53 strata market units and is the second application — after a 35-storey tower — that has come through council under the new transit-oriented area (TOA) legislation.

This provincially mandated legislation means many municipalities now have to allow higher densities near major transit stations, including within 400 metres of a bus exchange and West Coast Express stops. Maple Ridge’s TOA’s include the areas around Port Haney Station, Maple Meadows Station and Haney Place Transit Exchange.

In TOAs, there’s also no minimum residential parking required, with the province stating that parking adds to building costs and lowers people’s willingness to take transit.

But the applicant, Quorus Properties Ltd, is still proposing an underground parking garage with 48 spots, including 40 residential, six visitor, and two accessible spaces. 

“It’ll be interesting to see if the developers get it right,” said Coun. Korleen Carreras, at an Oct. 28 Committee of the Whole meeting. “I am still a little concerned about reducing parking out in Maple Ridge, where we have such limited transit at this point.”

She said she’s worried that it will push people to park on the streets, and reduce the parking available “for people to enjoy downtown.”

The only parking requirement in TOAs is one standard accessible space and one van accessible space. But since the application was in-stream when the city required this — and because it would reduce the number of proposed parking spaces — the applicant just has two standard accessible spaces.

A recent Metro Vancouver report found that parking across the region is underutilized. In Maple Ridge, 69 per cent of residential and 30 per cent of visitor parking is used.

“There’s a financial impact over providing parking. Parking is very expensive, especially underground parking. There’s environmental issues and climate issues associated with that as well,” said James Stiver, Maple Ridge’s director of planning and building. 

“It’s a bit of a balancing act between recognizing that there is a market and demand for parking, but we also don’t want to just oversupply it, to be cautious,” he added.

According to the Metro Vancouver report, “parking is more expensive than most people realize.”

The cost of a single underground parking stall in the region is between approximately $117,400 to $137,000.

The building also has proposed 67 long-term and 16 short-term bike parking spots — significantly higher than what’s required (14 long-term and 16 short-term).