Of land rushes and grid lock!

Mid March could see a land rush in Podunk to rival that of the great march west of the 1800’s, as prime lots in the Atlin Terminal area come up for grabs when the city puts them on the market. In an area that at the moment is nothing but a pothole riddled parking area, there will apparently be dollars to be made as the City launches its ambitious development plans for the Cow Bay area

With visions of trendy boutiques and eating places in their minds, city officials hope to encourage the local population to buy up the lots and set up their own vision of the future. What they hope to avoid is the scenario played out along the Alaskan cruise ship scene of the “company town”, shops that only open up for the busy cruise season and then become shuttered for the rest of the year, allowing the locals to peer through the cracks into a land they may never know.

While the folks at city hall do their George Jetson routine, a more mundane issue is going to come up and take a chomp out of their backsides. The always contentious parking issue in the Cow Bay area is about to become a super heated affair, as those lots become developed, precious parking spots will be eliminated making for a very nice area to visit if only one could get there!

Parking was supposed to be something that the city was working on for the Cow Bay area, but somehow the issue fell through the cracks, no real work has been done on the issue and some folks are not too happy about that! With the 2006 tourist season about to begin, Cow Bay is about to have even fewer parking spots available than are there now, which should make for some short tempers by the time the big ships arrive again.

A fund was set up supposedly to investigate the issue, but somehow that money just got folded into the city’s general revenues. That pool of cash was apparently provided by newer businesses in the area, which did not have to provide parking spaces for their new stores and businesses (unlike the old established businesses there had to do!). Now there’s nothing to show for that cash provided, no surveys, no symposiums and no solutions. Instead the area has one group of owners who have provided parking spots, for other business owners that didn’t have to provide the same service. Somehow you get visions of the Hatfield and McCoy’s punching it out at high noon in front of Smiles! Perhaps the City could market this like those old west towns always have a high noon shoot out for the tourists!

The other glaring problem of the parking issue for the Cow Bay area is the fact that the city has located the regions Visitors bureau in the area. With little to No parking available for RV’s and trailers (the preferred mode of transport for those traveling the highways) one wonders how anyone is going to make it into the Centre for information. The insinuation would seem to be that the only valuable tourist is one coming off a boat. But really one wonders which visitor would spend more money in town. The cruise ship visitors are here for a short six or so hours, the RV and trailer crowd could be convinced to stay a few extra days, if they could only learn about Podunk’s many charms. As any traveler in the Northwest has experienced, your major tourist offices across the province all have wide berths for trailers and lots of parking available for those seeking out information. Even if the car traveling folks leave the trailers at the campground, they'll still have problems finding a parking spot in the Cow Bay area. Making the Visitors bureau a difficult place to get to, is not exactly going to present a terrific impression of your town.

The debate will rage on as the lots sell off, but anyone thinking of visiting Cow Bay this summer may wish to put on their hiking shoes, the few spots available will fill up quickly sending you further and further up Third Avenue in quest of a place to park your car.

The Daily News had a comprehensive look at the issue in its Friday edition, here is the Podunkicized version.


CITY PUTS COW BAY “PARKING LOT” ON BLOCK
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, March 3, 2006
Page One

The city expects to put the remaining pieces of land in the Uplands Development in Cow Bay up for sale through an agent some time around the middle of March.

But it has yet to deal with the issue of parking.

The three key pieces of property near the Northland Cruise Terminal include the land that is now used as a parking lot, across from the Atlin Terminal, the adjacent land to the south in between Cow Bay Road and First Avenue, as well as the triangular piece of land in between the new intersection where Manson Way and Cow Bay meet.

While the properties are near the cruise ship terminal, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond said the city would prefer to see the sites developed by local business owners and operated year-round.

“The city’s interest is in more than just selling the land, it is in the actual development with people in the community,” he said. “We have set out some values around that which favour proposals that are locally owned and operated.”

Through the process of developing the Northland Cruise Terminal, in conjunction with the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Pond said the city has looked at other ports-of-call to see what they would like to imitate and what they would like to avoid.

The phenomenon in cruise ship destinations, such as Ketchikan and Juneau – where the stores are run by people from out of town and remain close all winter – is something the city would like to avoid, he said.

“We have year-round flow through,” said Pond. “Even in the low season we have a fair number of people coming through.”

He noted year-round operations add to the enjoyment of the area not only for tourists but for locals.

The city completed the redevelopment of the Uplands portion of the cruise ship terminal last year; however the lands made available for development remained vacant. The city has always intended to sell those lands to pay for the $3.5 million redevelopment of Cow Bay.

They have yet to decide how and if they will subdivide those pieces of property. Pond said the city will seek expressions of interest in March and move forward from that point.

And the issue of parking is one that the city has to deal with.

Currently, the lot across from Atlin Terminal is used as a parking lot and is frequently filled, not only by employees of Cow Bay businesses and the port authority, but by tourists visiting the chamber operated Visitor Information Centre in Atlin and by tourists renting scooters in the summer months.

Last summer, the city received a petition signed by 140 people asking it to deal with the issue of parking before selling the lot.

At the time, council promised to immediately convene a committee to look at parking issues throughout the city before the 2006 tourism season. At a meeting several weeks ago, they recognized that has yet to happen.

Pond said it’s an issue the city does intend to deal with.

He added the so-called Atlin parking lot wasn’t a parking lot a few years back and when the city took the plans for the Uplands project to the public, it was understood that it wouldn’t be a parking lot in the future.

One criticism that has been made of the city is that while in the past new business developments in Cow Bay have had to provide parking, more recent developments have only had to pay a fee in lieu of constructing parking. That money was supposed to be set aside to deal with future parking issues but last year council was told that money went into general revenues.

Suggested solutions to the Cow Bay parking issue have included developing small pockets of parking behind new buildings and parking lots on the outskirts of the area.