The City of Abbotsford is conducting a survey on commercial truck parking.
The survey is seeking public input on five proposed strategies for dealing with overnight commercial truck parking.
The matter last came before city council in late November, when a draft plan was presented, which included a background research report.
The report indicated that, as the number of trucks on the roads has increased in recent years, the amount of land on which to park them has diminished.
The five possible solutions offered in the draft strategy are:
• reducing the amount of employee or customer vehicle parking required in industrial zones and introducing more commercial truck spaces;
• advocating with the province to include overnight commercial truck parking in provincial and regional transportation plans, specifically along the Highway 1 widening project through the Fraser Valley;
• redesignating privately owned land outside of the ALR along the Fraser Highway corridor;
• allowing “big box” property owners with regional commercial land-use designations to permit overnight commercial truck parking, which would require an amendment to the city’s zoning bylaw; and
• using specific industrial streets for overnight parking.
The draft is the second of three stages, and was compiled following stakeholder workshops, an online open house, two in-person open houses, and an online survey.
The matter is now in the next stage – gathering further public and industry feedback – before the final version is presented to council for consideration at a later date.
The survey can be found online at letstalkabbotsford.ca.
