Motion to bring community garden to Johnson Street parkade rooftop approved

At this week’s committee of the whole meeting, three Victoria city councillors proposed a motion that would see staff explore implementing a community garden pilot project on the rooftop of the Johnson Street parkade.  

The motion stems from a request made by the Victoria Downtown Residents Association (DRA) to council. The DRA says there is a significant need for more green space and spaces for people to grow food in the downtown core. 

Currently, the Yates Street Community Garden has a waitlist of 160 people that could benefit from another option. 

The garden would take up approximately 16 parking stalls on the Johnson Street parkade roof, and would be able to accommodate between 67 and 100 garden plots. 

“There’s an interesting opportunity at the top of the Johnson Street Parkade because there are, at any given time, dozens, and I mean during business hours, dozens of empty spaces,” said Councillor Dave Thompson, who moved the motion. 

“At 10:19 [a.m.] this morning, during our break, there were 117 vacant spaces in that parkade.”

Thompson continued that he believes that it makes sense to reallocate some of the underutilized space and put it to use as a pilot project community garden. 

Councillor Jeremy Caradonna seconded the motion and noted that there has been a building code inspection on the rooftop and that if a garden were to be implemented on the roof to the parkade, it would not require any structural work. 

An amendment was added to the motion to have staff analyze if the pilot project would cost the City any money, if any.  

Parking capacity was brought into question, but Thompson asserted that the approximate 1,900 parking spots in the five City-owned parkades are rarely being fully utilized. 

Ultimately, the motion to have staff report back on implementing a pilot community garden on the Johnson Street parkade roof was passed in a 8-1 vote with Councillor Chris Coleman in opposition.