PHASE I: STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Core Area Transportation Review
The text below is from the Executive Summary of the Core Area Transportation Review (Phase I: Strategy Development). You can download the complete document using the links at right.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2005, the City of Kingston and five (5) key stakeholders in the Core Area combined efforts to prepare a Terms of Reference, retain a consultant and begin guiding the preparation of a new, integrated transportation strategy for the Core Area.
Three of these stakeholders, namely the Kingston General Hospital (KGH), Hotel Dieu Hospital (HDH) and the Downtown Kingston Business Improvement Association (DKBIA) were concerned that planned development and growth within the Core Area by the City, private sector and their own institutions would attract more trip-making to, and increase parking demands in the Area, while also reducing available supply of convenient offstreet parking for their patients, visitors, customers and staff.
The other two stakeholders with similar concerns within their parts of the Core Area were Queen's University and the Providence Continuing Care Centre (PCCC). The City's Parking Advisory Committee had also noted similar concerns.
Through focus group sessions with stakeholder representatives, a review of previous transportation studies in the Core Area and detailed analysis of existing parking, traffic and transit conditions within this area, IBI Group made seven key observations about the Core Area transportation system:
- The parking, traffic and transit needs in Kingston's Core Area originate mainly from the success of this Core Area in attracting and maintaining a wide variety of quality businesses, institutions, services and neighbourhoods that are the envy of many other comparable cities.
- Owing to the diverse nature of traffic generators and attractors in the Core Area, and the disparate transportation needs that result, the ability to find strategies and solutions that can jointly address the transportation needs of all stakeholders within the Core Area is extremely limited.
- The UGS sets a new strategic direction for transportation planning in Kingston that moves toward a more balanced relationship between auto use and alternative modes that can only be achieved in the long term. However, achieving this new direction will take time, and in the meantime it is unreasonable to expect that the Kingston public will support significant changes in transportation planning that would penalize use of the private automobile. Change in transportation planning direction must be carefully managed and monitored, for example involving the provision of parking and public transit services.
- The selection of a New Direction for transportation in Kingston conforms to the widely recognized New Vision for Urban Transportation developed by the Transportation Association of Canada in 1993. The actual targets set for Kingston, especially for the increased transit mode share will be extremely challenging to achieve, and will involve a myriad of complex actions, incentives, costs and penalties associated not only with the transportation system, but also with land use planning, architecture and urban design, municipal financing, social services, employee relations and infrastructure design and staging. No single sub-action, such as changes in the Core Area parking supply, should be identified as have a conclusive single effect on progress towards meeting the targets. However, all single actions will combine to determine if Kingston reaches its transportation goals and targets by 2026.
- The City of Kingston has recently initiated some price and duration changes to their parking plan that, while controversial to some members of the public and stakeholders, more accurately reflect the continuing importance and value of parking in the Core Area.
- The stakeholder focus group sessions held as part of this Review highlight the importance of parking supply and management as primary transportation challenges currently facing the Core Area. However, related transit service improvements are also warranted since they represent an alternative to auto use and associated parking demand. Traffic conditions within the Core Area were generally not identified as an issue by the stakeholders, except at specific locations such as on Brock Street at Hotel Dieu Hospital, and on Ontario Street near the LaSalle Causeway.
- In general, Kingston is in a very favourable situation with respect to public parking supply in the Downtown Core. The City controls a large portion of the total supply, and can therefore affect policies with respect to usage, allocation (between long term and short term parking) and pricing. Many other downtown areas in Canada lack this ability because the majority of publicly accessible parking spaces are controlled by the private sector.
- Kingston is also in a favourable position with respect to parking supply in that neither public parking or private parking is over-supplied — a situation that can detract from urban design, the pedestrian environment and transit ridership.
In response to the analysis conducted in this study and these key observations, this study recommends the following Core Area Transportation Strategies in a short term planning horizon (immediately to 5 years) and a long term horizon (5-15 years). Since the scope of the study represents the first phase of strategy development, further action-specific investigations and plans will be required in order to implement most of these strategies.
SHORT-TERM TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIES (IMMEDIATE TO 5 YEARS)
- Review the parking bylaw minimum parking standards and Cash-In-Lieu - of parking for commercial uses in the downtown core, and consider motorcycle parking. Existing and potential redevelopment projects in the downtown could require up to 1,750 new parking spaces in the core. Therefore, the City should consider amending it's parking bylaw to include a minimum (and potentially maximum) parking standard for commercial use C1 and CMS zones in order to maintain a parking supply equilibrium in the core (to replace lost parking only). The City should also review its Cash-In-Lieu of Parking bylaw regarding the types of projects it should apply to, and its cost formula.
- Reduce parking space dimensions since a review of space dimensions in other comparable cities suggests some of Kingston's dimension are somewhat excessive and can be reduced. This would assist in making the supply of parking stalls for efficient.
- Adjust parking rates to better reflect the true cost of the parking supply — recognizing that rates in public lots and garages were recently increased in Kingston. If the City is to maintain parking supply equilibrium in the core area, new parking supply is expected mainly in the form of aboveground structure that costs in the are of $25,000/stall to construct. An underground garage costs some $45,000/stall to construct. The City and key stakeholders in the Core Area will need to gradually increase the amount they charge for parking consistent with the cost of new parking construction.
- Construct the planned Tindall Field underground garage at Queen's University - starting this year. It will provide a net increase of 400 parking stalls on the campus. While it will address the University's current demand for permit parking, with some permits expected to be provided to Kingston General Hospital, it will not satisfy the longer term parking demands of either institution from staff, students, patients and visitors who, owing to various circumstances that are unique to hospitals and to some degree universities, cannot use alternative to the automobile.
- Expand/reconfigure the Chown garage to better meet the needs of Hotel Dieu — including extending the garage to the east with 200 new parking spaces, and connecting the garage to the hospital with an overhead bridge, as well as other upgrades to improve accessibility. Further work should be undertaken to explore implementation options for this expansion, and to identify potential partnerships for funding these improvements. Options include having the City partner with Hotel Dieu or to sell the Chown garage to Hotel Dieu, which would then perform the necessary upgrades. An analysis of the cost/benefits to each party would need to be undertaken.
- Construct new downtown parking structure — to replace up to 1,750 existing off-street parking stalls in the downtown core that have been, will be and may be lost to site redevelopment. A major parking supply principle recommended in this report, based in part on related principles of the Transportation Master Plan, is to replace lost parking supply to maintain a supply equilibrium in the core. The physical opportunities to introduce replacement parking in the downtown are extremely limited, and it is recommended that the City proceed into a Phase 1 investigation of potential sites, costs and benefits of a new parking structure in the downtown. With a per stall cost of some $25,000 to build a parking structure, a 400 stall structure would cost in the area of $10 million.
- Expand parking capacity in the vicinity of KGH - to change and improve the function and operation of King Street from Barrie Street to Lower University. Expansion of the waterfront in this vicinity would provide the opportunity to not only enlarge parkland, but also to relocate King Street south of the Heating Plant, thereby providing new space at the south edge of KGH and the Regional Cancer centre for new parking structure. This study has concluded that; 1) KGH / Regional Cancer Centre has the most chronic and severe parking supply deficiency in the core area, which is expected to worsen, and 2) the only other option available to KGH to provide a conveniently located parking supply to meet its long term needs is to demolish existing hospital-owned buildings along Barrie Street to create space for surface or structured parking.
- Provide new/expanded remote parking lots - at the Kingston Centre Shopping Mall with connections to Kingston Transit service, plus new Highway 401 remote lots at Highway 38, Division Street and Montreal Street. Remote parking at the Memorial Centre should also be considered in the context of future uses of this property and facility.
- Review residential on-street parking management - to change the availability of on-street parking on residential streets, especially in the area surrounding Queen's University. On many residential streets adjacent to the University, parking is restricted to only a few hours per day, making it virtually non-useable for students or staff, but there may be opportunities to increase the use of this under-utilized public parking resource, while still mitigating impacts on residential areas, by implementing an on-street parking permit program could make additional parking available for the general public in the parking demand generators of the Core Area during the day, while protecting on-street parking during the evenings for residents. The permits and on-street restrictions could be tailored to specific needs on a street in consultation with residents.
- Brock Street/Hotel Dieu area traffic improvements - are required to relive roadway and intersection congestion on Brock Street at Hotel Dieu, and to improve pedestrian crossing safety between the hospital and Chown garage.
- Downtown transit terminal relocation - as part of future transit system expansion plans. The Brock Street facility and its access/operational constraints will be challenged to support additional transit vehicle activity. The relocation of the transit terminal to a higher capacity and more accessible location is recommended to improve existing transit services and provide for future growth, and to address traffic congestion and pedestrian safety issues in the Brock Road/Hotel Dieu area.
- Sydenham Street loading/unloading area extension (at Providence CCC) - to extend on-street passenger loading/unloading space on the east side of Sydenham Street along the frontage of the PCCC without unreasonably affecting roadway operations or safety.
- Core area transit shuttle service - operated by Kingston Transit to replace the existing private shuttle service provided to the University and hospital. Using route 17 as the basis for a Kingston Transit-operated service, the combined private-public route could be provided at an estimated annual cost of from $400,000 to $475,000 for a five or a six day service respectively.
- Increase transit service frequency - to 10 minutes in the peak hour on routes 1 and 2 connecting to the downtown core sooner than planned. This would result in an added annual net operating cost to the City of approximately $375,000. This level of service increase in peak hour, as well as daytime, will be progressively required after 2009 to increase the transit modal split. Advancing these improvements to 2008 or 2009 would be advantageous and consistent with the objectives of mitigating downtown parking requirements by increasing the attractiveness of public transit.
- Upgrade Waterfront Pathway — through the Downtown between Simcoe Street and Brock Street, through Breakwater and Macdonald Parks and between Anglin Bay and River Street.
- Install On-Road Bike Facilities — on Union Street from Barrie Street to the Queen's University West Campus entrance.
LONG-TERM TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIES (5-15 YEARS)
- Expand parking demand management - initiatives throughout the core area., including the cycling network expansion recommended in the Transportation Master Plan. Other management initiatives can include limiting the use of employee parking permits, providing more park and ride opportunities (as recommended in the short term), providing transit pass discounts and encouraging telecommuting (work from home).
- Implement design standards - to improve the appearance, operation and safety of parking lots.
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Continue Transit Service Improvements - including:
- Introduce Bus Rapid Transit services on Princess St. and Bath Rd. corridors to provide limited stop/reduced travel time;
- Increase peak hour frequencies on major and secondary corridors;
- Extend transit services to new growth areas;
- Introduce local feeder routes, particularly in the northeast and west parts of Kingston;
- Use flexible fare options through the use of smart card technologies and partnerships with local employers; and
- Continue to pro-active market and promote transit.
- Develop a public pathway — from Macdonald Park to Simcoe Street as a pedestrian focus project in the core area to establish a continuous public pathway between these two locations. This would require acquisition of a new public right-of-way between Emily Street and Maitland Street, and an easement between Maitland and Simcoe from the Kingston Yacht Club.
- Cycling route - implementation in the core area as recommended in the City's Cycling and Pathways Study (see Exhibit 6.8) over the long term, with designated cycling facilities for primarily utilitarian purposes along strategic roadways in the core area.
