It was not smooth sailing at council for a proposal to put in a parking lot at the former Bargain Shop location on 101st Street and 12th Avenue.
Council accepted administration’s recommendation to vote down the discretionary use application. There were several reasons why it was voted down.
“The arguments presented by administration were that it was inconsistent with the downtown master plan, that it was inconsistent with the official community plan,” said Mayor Ryan Bater.
As well, with its location on two streets identified as high-pedestrian-traffic areas, the “preference is to have a commercial building there, doing business, that it was not appropriate to have a parking lot there,” said Bater.
The parking lot proposal had been from Prestige Ventures Ltd. who had proposed converting the empty lot to a paid parking lot. The lot had previously been the location for the Bargain Shop, which burned down in the summer of 2015.
The lot had stood empty and had been used by residents for parking since that time, but it was never officially a parking lot and has since been cordoned off.
In a letter from Keith Bossaer, president of Prestige Ventures, to the City of North Battleford dated July 16, it was indicated the company had made efforts to try to find a commercial tenant for that location.
“We were hopeful that we could secure a long-term tenant that requires a commercial office or retail complex that we could possibly build to suit. As we have not secured any interest in development of the site, it has remained undeveloped,” Bossaer stated.
Instead, the company proposed a parking lot, mainly for staff of nearby businesses in the downtown.
“There is a significant and ongoing problem with lack of parking in downtown North Battleford which seems to have become significantly worse over the past two years,” stated Bossaer. “This lot could only handle 24-26 vehicles and therefore, by no means is this a full solution to the city’s parking lot shortage, that is an issue the City needs to work hard towards securing additional lots.”
City administration officials saw it differently.
“101st, in particular, is our streetscape that is pedestrian-friendly with buildings,” said Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink.
“This property was a building, there was a fire, we’d like to see a building go up there again. We do have an abundance of parking downtown,” said Niesink. She concluded “we do not see a demand for this at this time.”
Council ultimately sided with administration, and unanimously passed a resolution not to approve the discretionary use application.
