The City of Castlegar is exploring several options to provide curlers with a place to park.
Last month, the curling club spoke to city council about the challenges they face as the former Pioneer Arena site next door is redeveloped for a housing project. Until now, curlers have mostly parked in the arena lot.
Once curling season resumes, the club says it needs about 30 dedicated stalls during the day on weekdays, about 50 stalls on weekday evenings, and up to 70 stalls on weekends.
City manager Chris Barlow said this week the city is inquiring about using a nearby Interior Health parking lot, which is generally only used during weekday business hours.
They have also contacted the owner an old gas station site on Columbia Avenue to see if it’s available for purchase and what its environmental status is. And they’re looking at other city-owned lands adjacent to or near the club, and discussing how parking might be maximized on the current curling club site using a small strip of land between the building and Downtown Shell. That might require the city to provide funds for design work, Barlow said.
Finally, staff are working with the housing developer to ensure parking stalls that are presently blocked off are made available to curlers.
“They’ve spilled out their construction site onto the paved parking lot for now, but come wintertime, we’ll be making sure that that’s again available for the curling club,” Barlow said.
He said there are no gurantees with any of the options, but city staff will continue to try to find a solution.
Barlow added that in some cases, they have already made requests, while in others they are still trying to find the right person to talk to. He said he brought the update to council, despite some missing information, because their next meeting isn’t until September.
