Reading the last article in the Feb. 12, Sooke News Mirror regarding parking and the hotel can only make me smile and nod. I did go through a lot with parking issues at the Sooke Harbour House, I only have 28 rooms and a small restaurant but I have 77 parking stalls and my hotel is located at the end of a quiet road. So, lets look at the Prestige Hotel:
Even before this hotel was built parking was an issue everyone at the District of Sooke was going to completely ignore. Remember the Prestige hotel is located on a very busy highway.
For a 122-room hotel with a large restaurant, two small food service areas, spa, swimming pool and la 300 - 400 seat conference centre only required to have 112 parking stalls and now even less 95 (why?) is something that a five-year-old would know couldn’t work. There is no space around the hotel, no other lot close by that can take the overflow parking.
I questioned this at a council meeting a few years ago and I was only asking where was the staff supposed to park when they come to work? The point is, it is not only the guests staying in the hotel and if fully booked that would mean 122 cars. Add to this the outside patrons to the restaurants and Le Sooke Spa and all of this not even thinking that there is a conference, large wedding, or a fund raising event sponsored by one of the local non- profit groups in Sooke.
The parking on the property beside the Prestige and owned by the community for the public boat launch is often occupied by the patrons of the hotel. (It is land taxpayers in Sooke bought.) On busy fishing days it is not adequate to even have every fisherman and their trailers park there. So, think of what could happen and has happened when we have a fully booked hotel (122) with a conference (350+) on a good fishing day (25) with employees working all through the busy day (50 and I am counting low) that means the need for 537 parking spots minimum… Wow, unsolvable problem.
The Prestige hotel could possibly give a certain amount of money in lieu of parking, it would be good only for the District of Sooke’s financials but certainly not for the pedestrian who may want to walk along the road or for the other owners of commercial properties that actually had to have a real physical parking stall in place to be allowed to operate their business.
Frederique Philip
Sooke