TransLink proposal threatens small businesses: Burnaby Heights Merchants

On Nov. 18, Burnaby City Council spent most of its biweekly meeting in a heated discussion about transit buses. The debate began after TransLink representatives gave a presentation about a proposed project. TransLink’s proposal would eliminate parking along a 3.6-kilometre stretch of Hastings Street between Willingdon Avenue and Duthie Avenue between 7am and 7pm, seven days a week. 

The parking would become a new, fast bus lane that would save approximately $220,000 and four minutes per trip, the TransLink delegates said. They also insisted that there is sufficient parking on side streets and elsewhere to accommodate the needs of patrons. While it may affect local businesses, TransLink’s report said the effect would be minor. 

However, the Heights Merchants Association members, which include 360 businesses and 180 commercial property owners, paint a very different picture. According to Isabel Kolic, executive director of the Heights Merchants Association (HMA), TransLink never informed the association or any of the local businesses of its intention to eliminate parking along the street to make the buses run faster. Instead, HMA members found out about the proposal on Thursday, Nov. 14 before TransLink presented it to council for approval on Monday, Nov. 18. 

“TransLink did not advise us of anything in advance of the council meeting. They told the council that they consulted us in 2022, but this is misleading because in 2022, that consultation…was kind of like a focus group with a number of local community people, where they asked us very general things, like what would make us feel safer in the neighbourhood on Hastings Street? What do we think would make Hastings Street more appealing, more attractive? How can we make the area more pedestrian-friendly?” Kolic told the Beacon. 

Kolic said many businesses along the Hastings Street corridor are already struggling and have lost revenue in recent years. Eliminating parking, she said, would be detrimental to their small businesses. 

“If we did lose our parking, revenues would plummet. There’s no debate about that,” Kolic said. 

“When we got the HOV lane, the merchants lost 20% of their revenue overnight. When TransLink says, the HOV lane is a cost-effective and inexpensive way to move people, it’s not inexpensive. It’s inexpensive to them, but it costs Heights merchants more than $20 million a year in lost revenues that just vanish out of the local economy,” Kolic said. 

Kolic added that when it comes to removing parking, it is rare that anyone proposes reducing parking for larger businesses, such as in Brentwood or Metrotown, despite these areas having excellent access to transit, including SkyTrain stations and multiple buses that transport thousands of people daily. 

“We only have two public parking spots per merchant right now, whereas, in comparison, Brentwood has 20, and Kensington Square has 15, and nobody says to Brentwood, ‘Okay, you have a SkyTrain station. You have a bus loop with half a dozen buses that use it and thousands of bus transit customers a day. You really don’t need your parking. Let’s take out 50% of those 2,000 spots you have because 1,000 is more than enough.’ Nobody ever says that to the big corporate giants and the big corporately owned shopping centres. But it’s okay to say that to the little guy on the street,” Kolic said. 

Kolic said the proposal will not just affect small businesses; it is also expected to damage the character of the area and make it harder for locals to find their needs nearby. In fact, over the years, Kolic has seen many types of businesses disappear from the area, making it increasingly difficult for local residents to shop without having to commute long distances.

“Hastings Street is our main street of this community. So there are about 15-20,000 people that live in the general vicinity,” Kolic said, adding that the people who utilize the street parking the most are members of the community. “They’re people who are going to a funeral, seeing a doctor, getting prescriptions, going to music class, having a coffee with a friend, picking up their dry cleaning, going to the bank, haircuts, everything; this is our district. This is our home. This is our neighbourhood. So when TransLink made this announcement that they wanted to strip our parking, what they are effectively doing is stripping the ability of community members to use their own district.” 

Council’s heated discussion  

The subject and TransLink’s proposal sparked a heated debate during the council meeting on Nov. 18, which lasted more than an hour. Coun. Pietro Calendino was very much opposed to the idea of reducing or eliminating street parking in the area. 

“The impact of what you are proposing is insurmountable for most of those businesses. These are small businesses,” Calendino said. “Many of them struggle to make the rent payments often, and now you're proposing to take away the parking lane, which obviously will remove a lot of the customers from accessing those businesses.” 

Council members mentioned that they had received correspondence from the small businesses in the area regarding the proposal and how it might affect their businesses. The lack of sufficient public consultation was a key issue discussed during the meeting. 

“We engaged with a number of key stakeholder groups in the community, so we had a meeting with them. We had a virtual meeting as well with a number of other stakeholders. We also conducted an online survey, and we received more than 900 responses to that. The online survey was promoted through the City of Burnaby and TransLink’s social channels and through our websites. Also, we targeted people who live near Hastings, so we used geo-targeting through social media to make sure that we reached the right people,” said Bita Vorell, TransLink manager of bus speed and reliability. 

However, Vorell said that TransLink did not discuss this particular plan and proposal with the community. 

“We didn’t do a specific engagement on this particular aspect. I think we learned a lot in the previous engagement that has certainly informed what options we might want to move forward with, and I think we’re comfortable that we have learned enough from that earlier engagement that we could apply it to this one,” Vorell said. 

Coun. Richard Lee asked about the impact the changes would have on the small businesses in the area and on the local residents. 

“The impact to the merchants and…the customers to the merchants are not being addressed here,” Lee said. He added that the effects on seniors and people with disabilities who cannot walk long distances from their parking to their destination are not addressed in the TransLink proposal. 

“I think the impact on anyone parking and having to walk further is certainly more for anyone that walking might be a challenge, that could be seniors, that could be people with disabilities. I think the same thing applies to people that might benefit from transit access. We have many people, many seniors, many people with disabilities, using transit,” said Matt Craig, TransLink director of system planning.

Coun. Maita Santiago spoke about the necessity for better public engagement. 

“I think especially on issues such as this, where folks might have really strong views on one side and the other side, having a robust public engagement, and being able to create those spaces where people can come together gives us an opportunity, or gives each other an opportunity, to hopefully find common ground,” Santiago said. 

A possible compromise

Following the council discussion, Coun. Daniel Tetrault proposed a motion to shorten the section of Hastings with the bus lane and to consider introducing bus bulbs in the area. The following are the points Tetrault proposed in his motion:  

• “Dedicate the curbside lanes to buses between Delta Avenue and Duthie Avenue 7 days a week from 7am to 7pm. 

• Explore the feasibility of bus bulbs from Willingdon to Delta and retain parking on both sides of the street

• Use low-cost and low-disturbance approach with signal coordination, lining and signage. 

• Begin design immediately and implement by 2026.

• That staff be directed to receive input from the affected areas before proceeding with this proposal.”

Kolic said that HMA members were pleased with this motion and the proposed changes, but there is always concern about implementing the changes properly. Kolic said the proposed bus bulbs could help provide a solution where buses can save time on trips while preserving parking on the street. Bus bulbs are sections of sidewalk that extend out onto the street at a bus stop allowing buses to stay in their lane without having to stop at a curb.

“We believe that the compromise that city council proposed is a good one. It’s not perfect, and we’ll still have to figure out how to make it successful, but it’s a good one because even though neither side got 100% of what they wanted, the beauty of that decision is I saw a demonstration of democracy beautifully at work in Burnaby,” Kolic said. 

Kolic added that small business owners are not opposed to changes that would encourage more people to take transit, but it did not have to be at the expense of small businesses that are already struggling. 

“The HMA is a strong proponent of public transit in our district. We have advocated on so many projects where our community was at risk with cuts and changes that were not compatible with our district,” Kolic said. “My concern is always that when we come up with the solution for something, that everyone that’s affected by the intended solution is at the table to talk about it, because planning sometimes happens in a vacuum by transportation planners who don’t even live in the area being affected.”

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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