LINE DRIVE
The stadium fight has moved to the parking lot. The Ticats vow to pay for thousands of east Mountain spots, and the city says it has more room for cars near the west harbour.
August 04, 2010
Emma Reilly
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/819691
The Tiger-Cats are offering to foot the bill for upwards of 6,000 parking spots at the east Mountain stadium site.
Meanwhile, the city says it has found thousands of additional parking spots around the west harbour.
The competing plans make parking a key battleground for the city and the CFL team as they approach the critical Pan Am stadium decision deadline next week.
The Ticats' new offer for parking at its preferred site will cost the team at least $3 million on top of the $15 million it has pledged for the capital costs of the stadium.
The average cost of one paved parking spot is roughly $5,000, not including land acquisition, storm management and a new stormwater tax the city is imposing on big patches of asphalt.
The parking lot would be on the province-owned land across the street from the stadium site.
And with up to 7,000 spots, a paved lot would take up the entire swath of available provincial land.
It would be almost double the size of the 4,000-spot Lime Ridge Mall lot.
Tiger-Cats president Scott Mitchell says it's the football club's responsibility to supply the parking spots the team sees as crucial to its fans' "driveway to driveway" experience.
"The parking issue is our concern, not necessarily theirs," Mitchell said yesterday.
He added: "We're prepared to come up with a solution that doesn't cost the city a penny."
Mitchell said it's too early to pin down a specific dollar amount the Ticats are prepared to offer for the plan, as the team isn't sure if it will provide one paved lot or a parking garage of some sort.
While the Ticats grapple with parking at east Mountain, a report presented to city councillors in a closed meeting yesterday suggests the number of available parking spots at the west harbour has blossomed to 4,615.
That includes the 600 spots initially included in the west harbour proposal, an additional 1,500 parking spaces in the west harbour district on property the city already owns and 2,515 spots within a 700-metre walk.
The Ticats' parking proposal stalled the release of a city staff report comparing the costs of the two potential sites that councillors were expecting yesterday.
Several councillors said the east Mountain was rumoured to be more expensive than west harbour by between $42 million and $50 million.
"We were hoping to get our head around our numbers today," said Councillor Lloyd Ferguson said.
He said the city had previously understood it would be on the hook for the cost of parking.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger said plans for the west harbour site -- which covers about 8 hectares -- included 600 onsite parking spots to be paid for by the city.
The east Mountain site is only 6.8 hectares.
Eisenberger says the city isn't willing to pay for more land to create extra parking spots for the Tiger-Cats.
"Clearly, the only evaluation that we're doing is on the stadium site. Anything that comes over and above that should be the responsibility of the Tiger-Cats," he said.
"Certainly there's no appetite for the City of Hamilton to go acquire these lands on behalf of private development."
BY THE NUMBERS
6,800 parking spots needed at an east Mountain stadium site
4,615 spots available for the west harbour site, including:
600 spots in the city's original proposal
1,500 new spots on city-owned land by the west harbour
2,515 spots within 700 metres of the west harbour