A proposal by the City of Vancouver to drastically cut the amount of new parking stalls in the city is drawing harsh criticism from businesses.
The plan, which council discusses Thursday, cuts the number of parking stalls allowed to be built with new commercial construction by almost half.
It's an idea the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says discourages business.
"You're going to find the businesses that are here now are going to be forced to look to move out and businesses that want to move to Vancouver from other jurisdictions are going to think twice," Brian Bonney said.
Critics say despite the billions of dollars spent to improve bridges and highways leading into Vancouver, there won't be anywhere to park once you get there.
"If their goal was to create urban sprawl and turn downtown into a ghost town then they should vote for this plan," Bonney said.
Vancouver currently has 60,000 parking stalls in the downtown core. Our sister city, Seattle, stacks up with 100,000 -- 40 per cent more, and their city has free transit in the downtown core.
But not everyone thinks it's a bad idea.
Lawrence Frank, sustainable transportation expert at the University of British Columbia, says the plan could work if the goal is getting more people out of their cars and onto transit.
"This is a very progressive, very appropriate policy," he said.
"Portland put a lid on parking in its downtown decades ago, it was effective."
Vancouver city councilor Geoff Meggs says trips into the downtown core have decreased seven per cent over the last decade.
"I know people are very frustrated with the traffic, but we're growing the economy without growing the number of cars that are coming down here," he said.
Vancouver city council will vote on the proposal on Thursday.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Stephen Smart
