Moose Jaw Multiplex Parking

The City has never made an effort to deal with parking issues created by a downtown Multiplex.  Instead of dealing with the actual, physical parking issue, they simply chose to relax their bylaw to exempt the multiplex from the same parking bylaws which govern every other business in town.  They did this before funding was in place, before the land was purchased, and before requesting to increase our debt limit.

In fact, in the last days before the election a flyer was distributed trying to dispell the parking problems downtown. We were told not to worry, that there are 1500 parking spots within 400 metres of the downtown multiplex. At Council Feb. 23, 2009, Councillor Chow even tried to make that point but when questioned where these parking spots were he failed to give an answer other than they were on-street and did not include the CPR or safeway parking lot.

We provided a map to show you just how far away from the multiplex 400 metres is.

400 metres from the downtown multiplex includes
Co-Op parking lot to the North
The casino and spa parking lot and potentially the parkade on the East
Manitoba Street on the South (Bounded by railroad tracks)
4th Ave. on the West

Getting the Numbers

On November 30, 2007 the City Engineer detailed how many parking spaces are required for the downtown Multiplex.

Since soccer has been removed from the downtown location, 252 stalls required for soccer have been eliminated from the original 1100 required, making the downtown Multiplex total 848 parking spaces.   The City says it will attempt to put 200 parking spots on the downtown land, but with the City purchasing significantly less property than was initially planned downtown, that will be unlikely or more likely impossible.

The Multiplex/Communiplex plans included a 2 storey, 500 car parkade to be built on adjacent property for $7 million but was removed from the project around 2006.  Some believe the parkade was removed to give the appearance of a reduced cost initially and may be added in again after the multiplex is built when there is no other option to deal with the parking problem.  Others believe it was removed when it was learned who owns the adjacent land it was to be built on.  Fact is, despite the mammoth size of this project, parking is no longer a component of it.

The Economic Impact of Parking

Council has tried to justify their relaxation of the parking bylaw by stating that allowing parking on-street intead of on-site will provide economic spin offs to businesses in the downtown area.  That patrons of the downtown multiplex will stop to buy at shops along the way.

In reality, the primary use of the Multiplex is Warriors hockey games which are held at night when most area businesses are closed.  They are also mostly held in Winter when the air temperature assists people in rushing from their cars to their destination.  In addition, many businesses in the area of the Multiplex are services such as banks, which don't even provide the opportunity to window shop when the stores are closed.

The Negative Economic Impact of Parking

In a report titled "The Economic Impacts of Mile One Centre and the St. John's Convention Centre", the impact of the on-street model of parking in St. John's was reported after surveying area businesses.  A similar outcome would be expected in any centre with similar facilities.

Local people attending hockey games, sporting events or concerts (especially those geared to a younger audience) tend to come directly to the event at start time and return home when the event ends ... the majority of attendees for such events do not visit downtown restaurants, pubs, etc.

and;

The only issue mentioned with consistency was the lack of parking available in the downtown area and the impact this can have on downtown business. Small retailers in particular indicated that Mile One Centre patrons will take up parking spaces that are needed for their customers and this compromises their ability to secure a clientele. It is believed that the lack of parking effectively discourages customers from shopping downtown when events are taking place at Mile One Centre.

Although this report was made public to Moose Jaw's Council, and the negative economic impact of the on-street model was detailed for them, they chose to ignore it and proceed on their own assumptions and predictions that on-street parking would have a positive impact to businesses in the vicinity of the downtown Multiplex.

Answer to enquiry Nov. 30, 2007 Number of parking stalls bylaw requires for the downtown multiplex.

Moose Jaw Multiplex does not include parking - Dec. 07, 2007