The Greenboro Live-and-Ride
At the north end of South Keys Centre sits the Greenboro Park-and-Ride, an underutilized public asset. Its 3.8 hectares of space is currently dedicated to free parking for transit riders – but what if it could be something different? Over the next few months, BSKC will be working directly with some local architecture students to answer this question.
As mentioned in our last blog, with the housing affordability and supply crisis continuing to worsen, our group has been working to advocate for a major change to the Greenboro Park-and-Ride: turning this valuable public land into housing. It’s been under consideration by the City since at least 2018 and we expect to see more interest in this in the coming years. Such a development could replace 700 car parking spaces with 1,000 or more new residents paying affordable rents within walking distance of high-quality transit, along with new parks and walkable retail.
What would this mean for those using the park-and-ride today? Our volunteers have been measuring its use over the past year and are finding that even on busy days (Tuesday to Thursday), the lot is no more than 40-50% full. The opening of the Trillium Line will mean more parking available at the new southern stations, potentially reducing this demand further. How does OC Transpo feel about this? They’re taking a wait-and-see approach and will study how the opening of Line 2 affects demand at the lot. In the meantime, some community members are taking this idea into their own hands to envision a different future – one where people will live and ride instead of park and ride.
Over the next few months, several groups of Carleton University architecture and urbanism students will be reimagining this site as a place for people, with plans for how housing can be accommodated here. Last Friday, members of BSKC and Councillor Jessica Bradley met with 30 students and their professors on-site to discuss the project, walk the park-and-ride, and answer questions. Their knowledge of the planning context was already impressive, and we’re excited to see what they come up with!
We’ll share updates as their work progresses and are eager to see how these students use a real-life example.
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I love the idea of getting affordable housing built, but it would be a shame if it came at the cost of furthering reduced ridership of OC Transpo. Being able to park for free at Greenboro is the only reason I take transit given I can park a few blocks from downtown for the same cost as my wife and I taking OC Transpo to and from work. Also driving in from South Keys takes approx half the time for me vs. taking transit in. As ridership continues to decline, they keep putting up the price and reducing service, deficits widen at OC Transpo and soon our transit is going to be for the young and the poor who have no other choice. Anybody willing to park and take transit should be encouraged with free parking as this has to be cheaper than gridlock or widening roads. Hopefully if they develop part of the park n ride side, they can invest in free underground parking or save enough parking to meet demand.
Very true – but with the expansion further south there are park and rides available there, so less need to have it at Greenboro in particular.