Standing outside his Vancouver store at Broadway and Spruce, The Dance Shop owner David Evans points out all the no-parking signs over the meters along the street.
The signs went up when work began on the Broadway Subway construction and prevent parking along the stretch of road for blocks, but there is no construction outside Evan’s shop.
The tunnel-boring beneath his feet hasn’t disrupted his business, but Evans says the lack of parking is causing unnecessary problems and it shouldn’t be restricted on his block when there’s no construction.
“We are passed the construction and there’s no more construction for four more blocks down and there’s absolutely no reason for there to still be no parking in this particular block or the next two blocks,” he said, adding sales have slumped to levels he hasn’t seen since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
“We’re a destination business… We’re told by our customers that they’re not coming because of parking.”
Evans says when he went to the City of Vancouver, he was sent to multiple different departments but was unsuccessful in getting someone to come see the street and reinstate the parking.
“They weren’t really all that interested ,to be honest,” he said.
The province is leading the subway project and says parking was initially removed to make sure buses and emergency vehicles were given priority.
“In order to build this public transit infrastructure project in a busy, dense urban environment and balance construction impacts on adjacent neighbourhoods, there are requirements for space to support deliveries, truck staging and other activities,” the Ministry of Transportation wrote in a statement.
It says after the traffic decks were in place, traffic volume and transit travel times were evaluated to see if more parking could be restored.
In a written statement, City of Vancouver director of engineering projects and development services Steve Brown says both the city and province support access to businesses along the construction route and point people to the more than 6,000 parking spaces within two blocks of Broadway.
“More than 150 parking spots have been reinstated on Broadway outside of peak travel times in locations between the station blocks that were not anticipated to conflict with bus operations and construction activities,” the statement reads.
Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association executive director Neil Wyles says his organization and businesses have “been nibbling at the edges” of the construction site for years to get more parking restored.
“But for the most part, it’s a six-lane thoroughfare,” he said, adding he believes the parking may be reserved on the chances the project needs the space.
“There’s no support. Ministry of Transportation says we don’t compensate for short term business interruptions. This will be a seven-year short-term business interruption.”
Evans says he is still in a lease contract, so finding another location is not a short-term solution.
“We have a 50-per cent vacancy on our six blocks of Broadway here,” Wyles said.
“At the end of the day, what are we doing this for if all of the businesses are gone?”