Dear editor:
As a retail store owner-operator of more than 20 years in the Ambleside area, I was very taken aback by our mayor’s comments [Booth Calls for Change in Ambleside, March 13] that revitalizing Ambleside will take commitments from a core group of business owners and a vision that goes beyond rolling up the sidewalks at 6 p.m.
I have always supported the revitalization of Ambleside, higher density and the creation of stimulating retail and waterfront environment to draw residents and visitors, as do many other business owners. I am not against change.
However, what no business owner will ever support is higher densification and increased commercial space, if parking spaces for customers are not created in tandem with this growth. You cannot increase amenities and public gathering spaces to draw more people to the waterfront without the addition of parking. How can we expect clients to shop local, if they can’t find parking. On a bike? I think not.
I respectfully thank Ms. Booth for her valued business in the past, but I can’t see how she would have taken her purchases home without a car parked in the vicinity of the store. Lamps and side tables don’t fit on the back of a bike or in a knapsack.
Specialty stores, boutiques and owner-operated establishments are quintessential in creating the “heart of Ambleside” and we cannot remain viable if we continue to lose clients to Park Royal with its ample parking, or to the convenience of online shopping.
I realize you cannot magically create more street parking, but you must stop clawing away at the existing parking and ensure that new developments meet our community’s public parking needs.
We see our regular clientele less and less as the common complaint continues to be that there is no street parking.
In order to free up street parking for potential shoppers, we are already doing our bit by renting two staff parking spots and one client spot.
In the last couple of years, Ambleside has lost the public parking spaces on Argyle between 13th and 14th, and the addition of the Grosvenor building has added three wonderful new large-scale restaurants, a specialty grocer, a jeweller with two remaining spaces to be filled, yet we only count about 50 underground public parking spaces.
The mayor’s stats state 70 per cent of the spending takes place after 6 p.m. – maybe downtown or if you are in the food business. West Vancouver – “densified” or not – cannot claim those stats. Instead of using third-party data to understand West Van business owners and the clients we serve, I suggest it would be time well spent to actually meet us, and hear what we have to say. The stakes are too high for all of us: for the business community, our livelihoods and existence are in jeopardy whereas the district needs density and additional tax dollars for improvements and infrastructure.
Christin Fernandes
Da Vinci’s Home
West Vancouver
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