Fratesi warns city’s parking-pass scheme could be illegal

Joe Fratesi, lawyer, former Sault mayor and chief administrative officer, has served notice to the city that bulk-selling 90 parking passes in two downtown lots may not be enough to meet parking requirements contained in the city's zoning bylaw.

In a controversial decision two weeks ago, city council agreed to assign passes in the Brock-Albert and Spring-March lots to North Shore Tribal Council (NSTC) and District of Sault Ste. Marie Housing Corp. (SSMHC).

Seventy-four of the passes, which allow parking on a first-come, first-serve basis, will be assigned to the city-owned Brock-Albert lot.

The other sixteen passes will be assigned to the Spring-March lot.

Selling the parking passes will bring about $48,600 in annual new revenue to the city if all 90 spaces are used.

The passes were sold in an attempt to meet city parking requirements after the former Ontario Works building at 540 Albert St. East, originally slated for demolition, was unexpectedly chosen as the location for a new primary health facility to be built by Mamaweswen the North Shore Tribal Council, which represents seven First Nations including Atikameksheng Anishinawbek First Nation, Batchewana First Nation, Garden River First Nation, Mississauga First Nation, Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, Serpent River First Nation and Thessalon First Nation.

Speaking on Thursday night to about 30 people at a town hall-type meeting organized by the Downtown Association, Fratesi disclosed that he had advised Peter Tonazzo, the city's director of planning, to get a legal opinion on whether granting parking passes satisfies parking requirements of the zoning bylaw.

"We're talking about parking spots," Fratesi said. 

"I have some concerns that it may not qualify because they are not dedicated in one spot.

"Don't be surprised if he [Tonazzo] comes back and says we've got a problem – parking passes do not meet the requirements of the zoning bylaw parking spots."

At the sometimes-tempestuous meeting, business owners and neighbours claimed they had not been adequately consulted about the city's plan to sell the 90 parking passes.

The decision was perceived by some as needlessly reducing available parking in Queenstown.

A commissioned study of occupancy rates at downtown parking lots also attracted skepticism.

The consultant who did the study reported the Brock-Albert lot had an average occupancy rate of 39 per cent, compared to 54 per cent at Spring/March.

If accurate, that data suggests there's plenty of room to park in the neighbourhood.

Audience members pointed out, however, that much of the data was collected during winter or the pandemic.

The meeting was moderated by Marnie Stone, who tried valiantly to focus on resolving the parking controversy.

"We hope to move forward with solutions so that everyone in the downtown area will be able to benefit from this great move of the North Shore Tribal coming into our downtown," Stone said.

"Very positive. We're excited about that, and that the businesses in the surrounding area have places for their customers to park."

"We need to find a way to make room for everyone."

Nick Rosset, chair of the Downtown Association, said there's "significant support from the community and the Downtown Association to welcome North Shore Tribal Council to downtown Sault Ste. Marie."

Despite the positive spin from Stone and Rosset, the meeting occasionally lapsed into episodes of hardball.

At one point, Fratesi came down hard on Brent Lamming, who was recently promoted by the city to deputy CAO for community development and enterprise services.

"Brent, your numbers aren't right," Fratesi said.

"There are 60 spots that are rented out on the Brock Street [lot] on an annual basis. You've got 60 and then we're going to take another 74. That's 134. That means there'll be 10 spots left in the Brock Street parking lot for all these business," he said.

At another point in the meeting, Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen took a hard dig at Fratesi, demanding whether he owned a business downtown.

"Your interest in this I find more political. We aren't actually here about the community and businesses and finding solutions," Vezeau-Allen said. 

Fratesi was at the meeting by invitation from the Downtown Association, and representing Head to Toe Salon and Spa at 135 Brock St., a business co-owned by his daughter Krista Fratesi-Williams.

Fratesi-Williams was concerned about what she said was a lack of appropriate notice to neighbours affected by bulk-selling of parking passes.

"Why aren't you offering other solutions?" she asked.

"And why aren't we having a meeting where we could bring the health centre here and and purchase a building with parking, or maybe we can purchase that building and figure something else out instead of taking a parking lot from everyone else?"

Also at the meeting was Rev. John Wilson from Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Rev. Wilson said that in 1965 his church was approached by the city, which was interested in buying church property for use as municipal parking.

"The church agreed to that," Wilson said.

"Within that was a proviso that the church would be granted access to the parking lot for funerals, for events."

"We believe there is a contract that the city has with Westminster Church. It was an agreement that we would be able to host funerals and have people park there."

"Now, how do I tell my people that we can't have funerals at Westminster anymore?"

The city council debate about parking passes attracted additional controversy when Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach accused fellow council members of participating in secret group chats on their phones as the issue was being decided.

"What I believe I saw is a group chat. The amount of messages, timing of phones buzzing and people texting back. If it is not a group chat there were still messages being exchanged between various councillors simultaneously as a sidebar about the agenda item before and after the vote," he said.

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and all of Kinach's council colleagues have denied using group chat during council meetings.

Next month, city staff are expected to ask city council to significantly reduce parking requirements downtown.

In the meantime, staff have promised to track use of public parking lots downtown, and to come back to council with other ideas if occupancies start to approach 85 per cent.