Westboro Parking Will Only Get Worse

There's a parking problem in Westboro Village. And it's spilling on to our residential streets.

More and more visitors to Westboro are parking on residential streets making them less safe, especially for pedestrians, including our children.

Why?
Because the City of Ottawa is letting it happen.

How?
Builders can opt out of providing customer and visitor parking for their retail and residential tenants by giving the city some money. The city is supposed to use that money to provide public parking.

Not since Mountain Equipment Coop, Loblaws and Westboro PharmaSave built their new facilities with adequate or more than adequate parking has any customer or visitor parking been added to Westboro.

The newer buildings do not have their own parking for retail customers. Customers and the people visiting the residents of condos have to park on Richmond Road or Churchill. If there are no parking spaces to be found they are resorting to Golden, Byron, Roosevelt and Berkley, the neighbouring residential streets.

If the City of Ottawa does not start requiring new buildings to provide their own customer and visitor parking this situation will spread to more of our residential streets.

The city will not change its modus operadi unless it has to.

Why not?
Because either of their options cost the city money. If they force builders to include visitor and customer parking then they will collect less taxes from the new building.
And, of course, it costs the city money to acquire land for public parking.
So the city does not have an incentive to act in our best interests. Unless we make a stink.

Sign this petition so that the City of Ottawa knows that we expect more for Westboro and we're ready to demand it.

PS To participate in a related petition please go to:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-more-westfest.html