St. Catharines Downtown Association

It might be a parking garage but it won't look like one and in many ways it won't act like one either, St. Catharines councillors were told Monday night.

The roof is designed to collect rainwater to water the city's downtown floral displays and it will be white to reflect the sun's heat back into the atmosphere, keeping the parked vehicles cool. There will be parking spaces for bicycles and electric scooters, and there will even be a hanging garden outside the third floor "sky lobby," St. Catharines councillors were told at Monday night's city council meeting.

The architects and engineers designing the new Carlisle Street parking garage presented their concept for the new building, and were given council's unanimous support to continue with their design.

The new $28-million garage, to replace the current garage which is crumbling due to salt damage, will also have the ability to provide electrical outlets to recharge the batteries of electric cars, city engineer Paul Mustard said.

But drivers shouldn't think they'll be getting the power for free.

When the technology becomes available, the city will install some sort of metering system "like a vending machine," said Mustard, with drivers pre-paying for the amount of juice they want.

Some councillors worried the features might end up being too expensive, or that the city might not get the building done in time to meet the March 2011 deadline for funding from the Canada Ontario Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.

City administrator Colin Briggs assured councillors both the deadline and the design were attainable.

Construction is expected to start by the end of March 2010 and be finished by March 2011, said Mustard. And the project team will provide regular status updates to council, said Briggs.

If the flashy features end up being too expensive, the design will be adjusted, said Briggs, who added he was "90%" certain the cost estimates were accurate.

Please see full story in The St. Catharines Standard by M.Bergsma at:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2210469