A PST RTL re cae ng rat cata Ee Te TRH atest os [BYLAW INTERPRETATION] SPACE ON THE STREETS — A beer truck hits a delivery dilemma head-on In 1988, Terrace city council gave a green light to the first beer and wine store in Terrace. The project was proposed by the Inn of the West, who said the only space they had, without cutting into existing bar and banquet room space, was the west end of their parking lot at the | -corner of Lakelse and _ Emerson. | ‘Council expressed con- cern. It meant losing 25 to 30 parking spaces at the ~ downtown hotel, but a deal was worked out. A part of | the negotiation dealt with © . ‘deliveries to the ‘beer and "wine = store. Discussion suggested that deliveries — would be made early in the - morning, sometime between 7 ‘am. and 9 a.m., : believed they got that i in writing. Today, however, no such docu- ‘ment can be found. . When city council met on. March 23, 1992, they found on | their agenda a memo from the their bylaw enforcement depart-. ment, Terrace RCMP had brought to their attention a problem at the corner of Emerson and Lakelse, and bylaw enforcement ‘officer Frank Bowsher had i inves- tigated that complaint. . Asa result, Bowsher reported to council that deliveries were taking as much as an hour and were being made as late as 12 noon. In the process, the north- bound lane of Emerson was being blocked off and cars were being forced to drive into the oncoming lane of traffic to get through to Lazelle Ave. | : . Council sent the matter to their Planning and Public Works Committee for a possible solution, and ‘that committee met on April 8. It’soon became apparent at that meeting there is no easy — "It meant losing 25 to 30 parking spaces at the downtown hotel, but a _deal was worked out." _ and: council | | solution. In the end, the commit- tee tabled the matter to their _ April. 22 meeting. One suggestion on April 8 was to change two 15-minute parking spots on Emerson into a loading zone. Hotel management com- plained, saying they need those parking spots for the convenience .. of their customers. A counter- proposal was made: a loading zone restricted to specific hours, and outside of those hours, two 15-minute parking spots. That may not be possible under the Motor Vehicle Act, but the hotel _ management has said they will investigate the possibilities. Another suggestion made by the hotel was that they could barricade the two parking spots Tuesday and Friday mornings to reserve the space for delivery vehicles. Once the deliveries had _ 52 Terrace Review — May 1, 1992 Nee lennanars Pak cern ener ey ee es ane aeecee r ae EBT been made, the spaces “would be available to beer and wine store customers. The committee has asked Public Works administra- tion to investigate that possibility. There is a problem with this idea, though. Delivery trucks would still have to violate the 15-minute limit, Sand bylaw enforcement officer Fern Sweeting says she’s not willing to make an ex- ception to that rule for the convenience of the hotel. It wouldn't be fair to other residents or businesses, she > said. , As an added complica- tion, Bowsher says, under the Motor Vehicle Act a 20- -- foot no-parking zone is required on either side of a hotel entrance or exit. The Emerson St. entrance to the bar happens to be ~ in the middle of the debated sec- - tion of Emerson, and pending a legal opinion, that might mean both parking and deliveries might have to be banned. - The findings of hotel manage- ment and city adminstration will be returned to the committee in two weeks, and with that infor-. mation some kind of a recommen- dation to council might be formed. Any such recommendation, though, will have to consider a number of factors. And city coun- cil will have also have to consider those details. The decreased size of the hotel parking lot is some- thing that can’t be changed, but the two 15-minute parking spaces are only a part of the overall downtown parking problem.