It was contentious, but City Council Monday night approved a parking lot lease agreement between the City and Sault Ste. Marie Housing Corp., Mamaweswen and the North Shore Tribal Council Secretariat.
The agreement provides 90 downtown parking passes over two lots, one at March and Spring Streets and another at Brock and Albert St. E.
The lease is for 20 years.
Sault Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and Ward 2 Councillor declared conflicts of interest, and Ward 1 Coun. Sonny Spina was in the Mayor’s chair for discussion on the application.
The passes were sought by the North Shore Tribal Council for a proposed medical facility in the former LCBO building/Social Services Centre at 540 Albert St. E. The building would be home to a staff of 50 health professionals including two to three doctors and health some health practitioners.
In a prior agreement with the city, the building was to be torn down and turned into a parking lot. The applicants applied to the Committee of Adjustment in May to sever the site into two separate lots, and sought to reduce parking the minimum parking requirement at the site to zero.
The Committee approved the severance on the condition the applicants secure required minimum parking for 20 years.
Social Services then approached the city about purchasing 90 parking passes.
Former Sault Mayor Joe Fratesi represented downtown businesses at Monday night’s meeting – some were on hand in council chambers – to object to the lease agreement application.
Fratesi told council he had signatures from 40 business owners and 200 patrons objecting to the lease agreement. Fratesi said downtown business owners were not properly consulted.
“Let’s be clear, no one has a problem with the building being re-used,” Fratesi. “It’s a good building. But like any building in our city, it needs to have parking to support its operations, its employees, its patrons and its clients.
That support, however, is much like the issue of the building permit by the City, conditional on parking for both buildings being provided, without taking it out of the inventory of public parking that the city has established over the years.”
Business owners say the passes will crimp parking for customers at their nearby stores, offices and facilities. They also said the City gave them late notice of the application and notices were not received by some neighbouring businesses. One notice was apparently sent to an owner who is deceased.
Fratesi sought to have the application rejected or deferred.
Sault Ste. Marie interim Chief Executive Officer Don Mitchell said in all the years he’s been involved in economic development, municipalities and the provincial and federal governments “are here to look at the infrastructure necessary to support business.
“The business community truly wasn’t consulted on the report that you’re looking at now,” Mitchell told council. “Is the Chamber of Commerce going to oppose what is being put forward? Not really, we understand that the parking is necessary, but I think there are other solutions and those have to be looked at.”
Mitchell said Police Services’ Division 2 station has a 52-vehicle lot leased to it by the city, located directly across from the proposed medical facility.
He said some of the leased spaces at Division 2 could offset parking needs along Albert and Spring streets.
A downtown parking study conducted by the firm CIMA + in the winter of 2023, says parking usage falls well below capacity downtown.
Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen asked if there are any restrictions on purchasing parking passes.
“Right now at any lot in the Sault, the highest percentage is at about 46 per cent,” replied Community Services Director Brent Lamming. “It shows that our utilization rates are quite low here in Sault Ste. Marie. That’s backed by data from the last decade.
Lamming says commissionaires stationed at City lots conduct vehicle counts four times daily, so staff were provided with current and accurate data.
“The CIMA+ study recommends you should actually be at 85 per cent…as a good indicator for best practice for parking. With this recommendation tonight, both of those lots will be at 76 per cent, which is both lower than the target that the study is recommending.”
Ward 4 Coun. Marchy Bruni tabled a motion, seconded by Ward to defer the application until July 15 allowing time for downtown business owners to be better informed of the lease plan.
“I don’t know why we would defer it. I don’t think we’re going to get any more information from anyone that we don’t already know,” said Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi. “This isn’t an easy decision. I would encourage Mr. Nadeau and his partner to continue to work hard to see if they can fund other resolutions as it relates to parking.
I’m voting in favor. The deferral is not going to do anything but simply defer this and risk that this (facility) sets up somewhere between here and Sudbury.”
“It’s not that I disagree with Coun. Gardi,” said Coun. Bruni, “(but) businesses in the area are not aware of the numbers. They didn’t see the report. I think public consultation. It’s for 30 days. I’m sure the building will still be there and will still be purchased. But I think you have to communicate with the business owners to make sure they feel secure enough that there are ample parking spaces for their business. That’s all I’m saying. The deferral will only help the business owners truly understand. That’s all I’m saying.”
The motion to defer was defeated by a vote of 5-4.
Acting Mayor Sonny Spina said he would support the original resolution. He said the plans make use of a building that would otherwise not be used and one that would contribute to the local economy and net the City about $1 million in taxes over 20 years along with fees to a parking system that is currently losing about $300,000 annually.
“We have a very unique opportunity at this point in my view to create an amazing triangle of care and an amazing triangle of service…in the heart of where we have identified as a city council that we need those services most,” said Spina.
We have Social Services, Police Services and with this addition, primary care and mental health and addiction services in the area that we have specifically noted that we need it most. The area of greatest need.”
Spina added the proposed NSTC facility is an opportunity for the City to address reconciliation in a meaningful way.
A vote on the application passed by a count of 5-4.
Voting in favor were Councillors Gardi, Zagordo, Caputo, Vezeau-Allen and Acting Mayor Spina.
Councillors Scott, Kinnach, Bruni and Hollingsworth voted against.
Another horrible decision from the Ivory tower with many headaches to come because of it.
So the original claim by social services that taxpayers had to construct a new building for them because the old one was falling apart and unusable was a lie. Money that could have been spent dealing with their actual responsibility (all the free range zombies downtown) was wasted. Fire the lot of them, use their building for the new downtown police station and let the cops deal with the zombies.