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Parking in the Live / Work Areas of Cornell

Update: Please click here for the July 30 2007Update

             Please click here for the June 11 2008 Update

March 10 2007

The parking issues along Bur Oak are indeed a conundrum.

I have received some calls from business people who want more parking along Bur Oak.

The residents who buy into the Cornell concept of new urbanism are quite strong that this is a community for the people, not the cars. As a case in point, when one of the developers requested to bring a new model of home with "Front Loaded" homes to be built by the park, there was a great deal of discussion about the attraction of more vehicles.

The design of Cornell is a neighbourhood of communities, each served with a neighbourhood business area within a 5 to 10 minute walk. The density within that area is, or will be when it is built out, a about 5,000 people.

These business areas are for the traditional "Cottage Industry" that has grown larger than an in-home business, but smaller than a destination business. This would bring businesses such as a tailor, a small bakery or coffee shop, a convenience store, an insurance office with one or two agents. The concept should attract the type of business where the owner lives upstairs and works on the main floor. Business people who purchase a property do a lot of due diligence in making certain that there is a correct fit.

It is often said that the three most important items in finding a suitable business property are Location, Location and Location. This includes knowing that there is a fit for the type of business and the proximity of the market.

Bur Oak is not like the business area on the Main Street of Markham. Main Street will support a 'drive to' type of business, but would certainly collapse if a 'walk to' type of business tried to open due to a much lower density and lifestyle of the surrounding area.

I am concerned that we need to be careful that we don't change our entire philosophy without proper investigation. The obvious answer is to re-engineer to permit parking, but I'm concerned that we're then going to attract more of the wrong type of business. We need to look very closely at our philosophy, and get a second opinion before we take action permanently.

There has been a lot of work done at the Town in the past two months to find a solution, and we're not there yet. The Planning, Traffic and Engineering staff are bringing a report from a technical point of view to determine what can be done.

The decision that is taken now will set the style of the Cornell Community for the next 75 to 100 years, and must be done carefully and correctly. If the philosophy of Cornell is correct, then we need to stand by it: if not, we need to be very careful that we do what is right.

I anticipate that we will have some facts for decision making within a month.

Update July 30 2007

The Town's traffic engineers have completed a parking study on Bur Oak Avenue, between 16th Avenue and Whites Hill Avenue. The study revealed that parking availability is 17%, as shown Table 2. This means that on a daily basis, not including Saturday and Sunday, Bur Oak Avenue is experiencing 83% parking capacity.

Concerning the users of the parking stalls, the studies revealed that only 4 vehicles consistently parking on Bur Oak Avenue, between 16th Avenue and Whites Hill Road, as shown in Table 3. It is assumed that these vehicles are being parked by either business or home owners given the consistency and discussions with one business owner. Because the area is still under construction activity, including the individual businesses, many vehicles parking on the subject street are construction related at the time of field observations.

Given the above, it is recommended to revisit the area once construction activity is substantially completed and both the business and resident units are fully occupied. This will ultimately reflect the parking demand concerns and will direct us to take the necessary course of action.

Following is the raw data that was provided. 

Table 1 - Parking Space Inventory on Bur Oak Avenue

Notes:

1.      Location 3 is not active due to construction activity.

2.     The above quantities are approximate only.

Table 2 - Parking Capacity on Bur Oak Avenue (based on 5 day observation)

Notes:

1.     Location 3 is not active due to construction activity.

2.     The above quantities are approximate only.

Table 3 - Field Observations

Notes:

1.     License plate traced based on Observation #1 noted above.

Update June 11, 2008

I have been working closely with staff on this problem, and also on the problem at the Mews.  These meetings cross departments from Planning, Traffic, By-laws, Operations and Emergency Services.

It is more complicated that appears on the surface, and with each meeting we find new problems. 

There is a school of thought that this issue is more than one of parking space availability, but also one of convenience.  There are many on-street parking spaces that are available during the day on one side of local streets in the vicinity.  These streets include the following: Royal Feathers Street, Peony Street, Morning Dove Drive, Colchester St. and White’s Hill Avenue.  While some of these street parking may be a bit of a walk for customers, certainly business owners and employees should be using these spaces on local streets in order to free up the more convenient spaces for customers. 

However this is not a full solution as we may start getting complaints from area residents who view the parking spaces in front of their homes as their own private parking.

There is still more to be done.

If you have some thoughts on a solution to the problem, please let me know by clicking here.

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