Main Street's Old Fire Hall should become a parking lot, says Newmarket councillor

YorkRegion.com
Sept. 1, 2015
By Chris Simon

Newmarket should bulldoze Main Street's old fire hall to allow for more parking downtown, according to Councillor Dave Kerwin.

The long-time councillor introduced a motion Monday to knock down the hall to create an “artistically designed” parking lot. The motion will be debated at an upcoming council meeting.

"It's environmentally insensitive; there were oil drums in there and they filled the tanks up thousands of times," he said. "The oil has leaked all over and it's unbuildable, unless we spend millions of dollars to drain that land of oil. It's a perfect spot to create about 20 new spaces. The sooner we do it, the better. It's of no use to us."

The building opened in August 1952, but closed once the Davis Drive fire hall opened in 1971. It re-opened as the original home of the Elman W. Campbell Museum in 1982 and has also been used by the Upper Canada Chordsmen and York Highlands Chorus. However, the building has sat vacant for several years and is currently used for storage purposes.

"It'll always be an ongoing challenge," Regional Councillor John Taylor said. "I don't think we're ever going to be in a position to declare 'mission accomplished' when it comes to parking in the downtown. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be working at it. We're constantly talking about options we can explore in the short-term and it's very much on our radar about the need for a much more substantive structure in the three to five-year range."

Kerwin’s suggestion came out of a discussion on a lack of public parking in the downtown core, following the closure of the town's P1 parking lot, which is near the Doug Duncan Drive and Timothy Street intersection.

The lot has been closed for the Newmarket Farmers' Market and special events such as the Newmarket jazz+ Festival in previous years, but has yet to open to the public this summer. That's exacerbated a problem for merchants in the downtown, business owner Anne Martin said.

"A lot of the parking in the downtown is private and not available to the average person," she said, in a deputation, noting new restaurants in the core have hiked parking demand significantly.

"We have increasing needs and shrinking parking. We don't want to discourage people from coming. But we're in a bit of a bind."

P1 consists of 16 parking spaces and provides loading access to three area businesses.

The committee also passed a plan to close the lot Fridays at 9 p.m. to Saturdays at 2 p.m. between May 1 and Oct. 31 each year.

If the recommendation is approved by council later this month, weekend loading operations in P1 will also be restricted from May 1 to Oct. 31. The southwestern-most parking space will also be reserved for municipal crews during that time, allowing them to easily maintain a nearby garden and utility box.

"There has become a growing need since Riverwalk Commons opened to balance the use of the parking lot for public space against the need for more downtown parking, while ensuring building access," engineering services director Rachel Prudhomme said in a report.

Kerwin says council needs to find a parking solution.

"We're short of spots in the downtown," he said. "No matter what we do, we're spinning our wheels. We just keep tying up our staff and we never come to any clear solution. We've virtually achieved nothing (on this issue) over the four decades I've sat on council."