Four Sisters News

The Finance Committee has proposed that car owners in the co-op using the parking garage pay a modest fee of $20 per month. The Finance Committee’s recommendation has generated opposition based on the view that the levy would be an unjust user fee penalizing car owners. However, if the massive operating and mortgage costs of the underground parking lot are considered, there are a number of good reasons why parking fees are needed.

The underground garage constitutes 22.2% of the total square footage of Four Sister’s not including amenities. Think about that. That’s 38% of  the total area of the High Rise and Low Rise combined! The expense of the parking garage is a considerable proportion of our mortgage costs which all of us pay whether we own a car or not and for which we have paid from day one.

That is not all. Once we add in increasing annual city property taxes and the land lease costs to that of the mortgage costs, it becomes strikingly clear that the parking garage is a very expensive item placing significant burdens on those of our members who not only do not own cars but are also on low and fixed incomes.

There is still more. Once we add the insurance, the energy costs of lighting the parkade  area  and the costs of maintaining it to all the expenses cited  above, a  hidden dimension of our housing charges is revealed.

Originally there were 76 parking stalls in the garage. Two were removed for recycling space leaving 74.  Two are set aside for employee use, two for the use of visitors and one for the tractor cage. This leaves 69 parking stalls currently used by 69 members out of our community of just over 200.

According to the B.C. Assessment Authority, the underground parking area, is worth $2.85 million which is almost ¼ of the co-op’s value. Each parking stall has a market value of $180 per month. Because we do not have a parking fee, all members, with and without cars, contribute $98 per month to pay for the parkade through their housing charges. That’s over a $1000 per household per year.

Imagine for a moment that all members here at Four Sisters had cars and we had a parking policy of shared use in the parking area. Wouldn’t those periods of using alternative parking cost each member considerably more than the measly $20 per month proposed by Finance? You bet!

The parking garage is not a commons area unless you own a car. The children’s playground likewise is not a commons area unless you have kids. There are probably some other non-commons areas that do not readily come to mind. However on the scale of things money wise it would be like comparing an elephant to gnats! The parking area is a gigantic non-commons and non-revenue producing arena that is and has been subsidized by every member.

Bringing in a parking fee would ease the financial burden on those members least able to afford it. For instance, if parking area users paid the full or partial costs of the parkade, we could lower housing charges not only for the 83 co-op members without cars but for everyone. At the very least we could limit future rent increases.

Future repair bills to the underground parkade could be astronomical and lead to large housing charge increases for everyone. Our Replacement Reserve Working Group says that one day we may need to replace the ceiling membrane of the parking garage. According to the Finance Committee ,this “will create an expense so great that it cannot be covered by the replacement reserve and will require refinancing of the co-op and therefore a significant increase in housing charges.” Such a scenario would place an even greater burden on co-op members on low and fixed incomes. It is only fair that car owners contribute to the reserve replacement fund to help pay for future possible expenditures such as the ceiling membrane  which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Motorized vehicles, such as cars and trucks, account for 40% of green house gas emissions in British Columbia which are responsible for global warming. This does not include direct particulate emissions released from the tail pipes of vehicles that cause lung cancer and chemical vapors that cause asthma. For these reasons, we also believe that co-op members with cars should pay the full financial and environmental costs of owning and driving a vehicle.

In conclusion, the absence of a parking fee at Four Sisters has been a significant oversight for too long.

Tim Pelzer

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in the foregoing article are those of the authors and not the Newsletter Committee or the Board. We take no sides in this controversy and only seek to present both sides of the issue for the information of Co-op members.

JWL Editor and Chairman of the Newsletter Committee