Chamber members discuss next steps on downtown parking shortage
September 22, 2025, 9:03 am
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
At the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce meeting on Tuesday, a discussion was held on next steps for downtown parking after a community consultation was held in the summer to talk about a lack of parking in downtown Moosomin.
The issue was brought forward to the town by Chamber members in the spring after the Chamber identified a need for more parking in downtown Moosomin, hoping to remove part of the Broadway Avenue boulevard and create angle parking downtown. The town decided to hold a community consultation to get feedback on that idea, and the generate other ideas for how to deal with a shortage of parking downtown.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Murray Gray reported on the community consultation.
“There were some good ideas that came out of it,” he said. “It was good to include the community in the downtown discussion to know where everybody is at. A couple of the things that came out of it is the parking lot was offered that is across from the Scotia Bank to be used by any downtown business owners or employees. They would walk to their business in order to free up more space on Main Street.
“I haven’t seen that utilized at all at this point in time but it is there. The other thing that came out of that meeting that was discussed is there is an empty parking lot between the RM building and the old McKay Agencies building that is privately owned as well. There is a historical agreement that if the town cleans the snow out of that parking lot, business owners and people who work downtown can park there. That is being used, but only to about a 50 per cent capacity. So there is still room for people to park there and walk to where they are working.”
Kari Kosior, the owner of Kari’s Kloset, asked if signage could be put up to remind people where they can park downtown.
“I was hoping we could communicate it through the Chamber and the Chamber businesses because it’s not really designed for the public, more so it would be for the people who work down town,” said Gray. “Because it is privately owned, it’s an agreement that is in place now, so it could change but that’s kind of the idea behind that and some of the ideas that we talked about never really went out to the public afterwards.”
Chamber president Kevin Weedmark said the Chamber could draw up a map showing business owners where they and their staff could park.
Gray said a few other actions had been taken by the town to try to provide more parking. He said one of the handicapped spots on Main Street has been changed to a regular parking spot as there is no business currently operating out of the building it is in front of, and no need for a handicapped spot anymore.
“The business was not running so it’s down. We gained a parking spot there so anyone can now park there down town,” he said.
“Lastly the other suggestion that came out of that as well was working on gathering some more information about parking on Broadway Avenue in front of the Pharmasave lot. I have talked to Darcy Rambold who had purchased the lot and paved the parking lot asking his take on that.”
Gray noted that some people had suggested putting curbing in along Broadway Avenue by that lot to create more parallel parking in that area. Currently people can access the lot directly off Broadway Avenue.
He said the owner of the lot was not favorable to that suggestion.
“I think it’s important to recognize the fact that what Darcy did by buying that parking lot is he really opened up our downtown parking.
“He’s paid tax on that lot, he paved it for all the people who park back there and go to different businesses. As a town I think we really do need to respect what he has done, and so when he told me that I’m very hesitant to go against his wishes after the investment he’s made and paid tax on that empty lot.
“So that’s where we are at. That’s the update on that and we will have a discussion at council, but I just wanted to let everybody know that’s what I found out.”
Weedmark pointed out that a shortage of downtown parking is a good problem to have.
“I have two offices a block apart, I just walk between them because there often no parking along that block of main street. I’m travelling around the province a lot these days in towns of all sizes and I can tell you Moosomin is really unique in having a shortage of parking downtown. There are so many downtowns that are so quiet downtown, and what a great problem to have. And every new business opening up like Trends Mercantile always brings more people downtown, so we have this problem, but what a wonderful problem to have.”
Gray said it was important to communicate to business owners that they and their employees use locations other than Main Street for downtown parking wherever possible.
“I think we all need to be accountable to each other and hold our peers accountable to parking downtown, because we need to make sure that we have our customers able to park on Main Street, because they are the reason we have a downtown, and we need to pay attention to that aspect of it. I think that’s important going forward, as a Chamber member or as a town councillor, we need to get that message out.”
