Glam Yorkville grocer told to make room for pedestrians

For 10 years, customers of Pusateri’s Fine Foods have been able to park their vehicles at an indent along Bay Street known as a “lay-by.” The lay-by, which Pusateri’s paid the City of Toronto $75,000 to implement, allowed the grocers’ customers to hand their keys over to a valet and give someone else the often-exhausting task of finding a parking spot.

Now the city is making street improvements at Bay Street and Davenport Road to better accom-modate drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. This means widening the sidewalk, which would see Pusateri's losing the lay-by.

Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam spearheaded the road and sidewalk alterations, and recently found that the lay-by was obstructive. “I didn’t start out by looking at their lay-by and saying, ‘Why don’t I just take out one lay-by?’ ” said Wong-Tam. “It’s a much bigger conversation that involved all the area stakeholders.”

But Pusateri's has voiced concern about this decision to the city.

“They’re concerned that if we don’t have the lay-by, they won't be able to operate their valet parking service, which will affect their business,” said Jacqueline White, director of transportation services for the city.

According to White, the rest of the project was approved in February, but council has now thrice voted to defer the decision on the lay-by and allow Pusateri’s to explore their options. “They are looking at alternative solutions for their valet service,” said White. “Once we have considered those, we will report back to city council.”

Wong-Tam says that many of the city’s other lay-bys are becoming a thing of the past and that Pusateri’s should make the sacrifice. “The TTC, which serves thousands of people every day, have said they don’t need their lay-by,” Wong-Tam said, referring to a lay-by for a bus stop at Bay and Bloor. “I find it a little peculiar that a private business seems to think that they have a right to own a piece of sidewalk.” She hopes that this third deferral will be the final one.

Public space advocate and publisher of Spacing magazine, Matthew Blackett, understands the city’s wishes to remove the lay-by and believes that there are multiple factors in the area that contribute to a need for wider sidewalks.

“In the long term, it’s fair,” said Blackett. “Pedestrian volume is so high. I know all those people aren’t using those sidewalks for Pusateri’s.”

White noted that though Pusateri’s paid for the lay-by, anyone can use it for drop-offs and pickups. “There was money paid by Pusateri's toward that installation, although it was clear at the time that it was not strictly for the use of Pusateri's, but it was helpful to their business.”

According to Wong-Tam, the minimum width for city sidewalks is 2.1 metres. The sidwalk in question only sits at 1.8 metres wide.

Blackett questioned the necessity of lay-bys in that area. “They work well in suburban arterial roads,” said Blackett. “The amount of space that we have [downtown] shouldn’t be dedicated to parking cars for a little bit so that people can save 30 seconds of their time in the end.”

A spokesperson for Pusateri’s was unavailable for comment.

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