Revised parking plan proposed
For downtown Moosomin:
June 30, 2025, 9:14 am
Nicole Taylor
The Moosomin Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a plan to add parking spaces in downtown Moosomin.
Two downtown business owners presented a plan at Tuesday’s chamber meeting, and it was endorsed by the Chamber membership.
“This is a plan that we have talked about for quite a few years, I actually approached the subject back in the nineties when the town was re-doing Main Street development, parking was a very huge problem,” said Doug Creighton, owner of The Cratehouse on Main Street.
“Because of the growth of our town and the investment in businesses, the lack of parking downtown is going to impact the town growth. The investment into our community is astounding. In the last 5-7 years, the boom in downtown Moosomin business district has been significant. The private sector investment, the new ownerships of existing businesses, and renovations and improvements. If we consider the 4-5 blocks around the Town of Moosomin office, we can estimate about $50 million in private sector investment.
“We have seen new construction, new ownership, and significant improvements, with the following businesses in the downtown: New construction of Borderland Co-op Administration office, Home Centre, and Food Store, The Cratehouse, Anytime Fitness, Elite Suites, South Prairie Residential Design, Prairie Sky Heights. The following have new owners or renovations; Studio M, Kari’s Pharmacy, Haven Clothing, Parkland CPAP, Broadway Commons, Moosomin Sports Excellence, Trends Mercantile, New Sky Nail and Spa, Westland Insurance, Third Avenue on Main,. Phamasave, Red Apple, Home Hardware, Glasser’s TV, MNP, Witch’s Brew, Kari’s Kloset, The Royal Canadian Legion, and the Denray Tire is currently going through renovations,” said Creighton.
Growing pains
Kari Kosier, owner of Kari’s Kloset on Main Street, pointed out that with growth comes challenges.
“With growth comes growing pains. Sufficient parking is a challenge for downtown business owners, their staff, and most importantly, their customers,” she said.
“Myself, I can honestly say it is my customer who will come in and they’ll say, ‘I wasn’t planning on coming but there was a parking spot so I had to come,’ because they don’t know when they are going to get that chance to again. One long-term solution is to revamp up Broadway Ave, from Carleton to Birtle, remove the Centre Median, convert to angle parking at then curb instead of parallel parking. Have the traffic flow down the centre, and this would double the number of parking stalls down Broadway Avenue.
“There are several economic benefits to consider, more parking equals more customers.
“Current businesses are missing out on revenue as customers drive by and don’t stop to shop because there is no parking available. Improved business retention and attraction Adding more parking improves the possibility of developing vacant buildings and lots. Existing business owners that are currently looking to sell now or in the future, will be impacted by making the location difficult to sell.
“If it doesn’t sell, we end up with empty buildings, loss of a business and loss of jobs. More parking improves downtown property values and leases.
Businesses that are training new employees and adding jobs are faced with the challenge of where do our new people park? “ said Kosier, “I just hired three new staff. The one employee that works through the week, she doesn’t know where to park. She starts at about 11:00 am,and today for example, I peeked out my door, leaving the store at 11:30, and I’m on the 700 block down by the post office, but there were only two vacant parking spots at 11:30 on a Tuesday morning, and then I looked down at the 600 block and the block looked like it was full, on a Tuesday. So that is a really good problem.”
Kosior said there are additional benefits to revamping Broadway Avenue.
“It opens up new tourism and event opportunities. A revamp of Broadway with added parking opens up opportunities for events in the downtown core.
Things like farmers markets, street parties, vendor days, etc.,” she said.
“It’s also an opportunity to rebrand downtown; a new slogan, repairs on sidewalks, add some lighting and greenery, encourage businesses to fix up their storefronts, and an incentive to do so. Paint the existing light-posts, new signage on the lightposts, etc.
“I find angle parking more inviting when you go through a downtown. I think of Russell, Manitoba. It is a beautiful downtown, It makes me want to pull in, get a coffee and go check out the shops. It’s more inviting and I think it’s going to have people pull into town.”
Businesses contribute
Creighton said downtown businesses contribute a lot to the town’s finances.
“The downtown business core contributes $550,000 annually to the Municipal Tax Revenues. The private sector have invested heavily in the future of downtown Moosomin and we are asking the town to consider investments to support these businesses. There is a multitude of things we could talk about, I run into the same thing as Kari all the time, people come in and say ‘geez we would come in, but there was no place to park, and that hurts as a business owner. We are doing our best to try and get people in the door, but they can’t get there, and that’s disturbing. There is issues like Arvelle Leslie, owner of Zaylie Furniture, mentioned to me that they see it pretty much everyday, people leaving the Co-op parking grocery store area, headed down the wrong way on Broadway, so we have safety issues as well, there are many things to consider.
“Perhaps the first step would be for Town Council to meet with the downtown business owners, and have a whiteboard session to discuss all of these things, and come up with something that is reasonable we can move forward with. Moosomin is growing, it is doing fantastic,” said Creighton. “We just need to keep pushing hard and make sure we can continue. There is a lot of towns that would kill to have what we have going on, so let’s keep moving forward.”
Chamber in support
Kevin Weedmark suggested the chamber pass a motion in support of the parking plan, and Mayor Murray Gray said the town council also wants to find a solution to the parking issue.
“I too think that we need to find some solutions for parking downtown, for sure,” he said. “Most definitely it’s an issue.
“I’ll right now declare that we will have a meeting, that all downtown business owners are invited to, with all of council, and anybody else who has input in it so we can have a discussion about it,” Gray said.
“That’s why we brought it up” said Creighton, “so that we can sit down and work through all of this stuff so everybody understands each other. When it was first presented 30 years ago, we got a roadblock from town council right off the hop. It had never happened it was just ‘no we are not committing’ so I am glad to hear that you are willing to sit down.” said Creighton.
“Let’s have a meeting within the next couple of weeks while it’s still fresh in our minds,” said Mayor Gray, “We will get together and find some solutions. A thriving downtown is very important.”
Kosior said the parking problem is a result of the popularity of Moosomin stores and restaurants.
“The amount of compliments I receive from people that drive out of their way to our town to come shopping, in downtown Moosomin, is huge. We get crazy great comments on the restaurants, the retail,” said Kosior,
“We have got the support, and the parking is just going to bring more business and help everybody grow.”
“It looks like your group has done a pile of work on this,” said Weedmark, “Excellent job you two, excellent work by your group, and it’s great that the town is willing to sit down and meet.”
The chamber then passed a motion, made by Greg Nosterud and seconded by Carol Glasser that the chamber support the parking initiative.
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