A Toronto councillor says the city’s recent closure of parking spots near TTC subway stations is an “insult to its most loyal customers.”
York Centre’s James Pasternak says commuters near the yet-to-be-completed Toronto-York-Spadina subway extension are having to make an extra effort to get to the city’s core in light of recent parking cuts at Wilson, Yorkdale, and Downsview stations.
On Tuesday, the councillor pushed the city’s executive committee to stop reductions in the three commuter parking lots.
“We want to make sure that our most loyal customers have a place to park inexpensively,” Pasternak told AM 640’s The John Oakley show. “We don’t want them driving downtown and creating more congestion and havoc in the core.”
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Essentially the bulk of the parking spots will be heading further north with the subway extension adding 2,811 spots upon completion at Finch West, Pioneer Village, and the Highway 407 station, while Wilson, Yorkdale, and Downsview will lose a combined 3800 parking spots by 2026.
LISTEN: Toronto city councillor James Pasternak talks with AM 640’s The John Oakley Show
The councillor’s plan is to find some sort of balance with the closures so that commuters can still walk, drive, and take a bus to stations without having to waste time driving north to a commuter lot, only to have travel south again on a train.
“We’re going to start a working group to bring recommendations to public works to try and freeze any more closing or reducing of commuter parking.”
During the executive committee meeting on Tuesday, Pasternak put forward the motion for an advisory body consisting of stakeholders to provide advice on parking needs, in addition to motions on exploring extensions on current lot leases, and discussions with the federal government and Toronto Parking Authority on potentially sharing spaces with Downsview Park merchants and farmers markets.
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Mayor John Tory told the committee he will be voting against the recommendations believing that most license plates in the lots are likely from the 905, and that the city shouldn’t subsidize those users.
“I don’t think we’re in the business of maintaining or building parking lots for people from outside 416.”
In the interim, city staff will execute a survey in October to determine how many of the cars occupying spots on a daily basis are from outside of city boundaries.
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