A North Road business owner is asking for the city's help after what he says have been months of slow sales due to Evergreen Line construction.
Grigori Khaskin, owner of Euro Food Tri-City, told Coquitlam's council-in-committee that his business started to falter last November, when curbside parking was eliminated. Since then, Khaskin estimates he has lost $50,000 to $60,000 in sales.
"When construction had to begin, I was told it would be two weeks, and the closure will only be when active construction is happening," Khaskin said. "It ruined our [2013] Christmas."
The losses have also extended to his staff.
Khaskin said he had to let go two of this three full-time staff members and neither he nor his wife has been compensated for the past nine months.
"I want you to help us to survive, to push these people in the construction business to open the street-side parking as soon as possible," Khaskin said.
Parking on nearby side streets isn't helping, he added, because many Euro Food customers are elderly and can't walk up the steep North Road hill with their hands full, especially in the winter.
Mayor Richard Stewart said the city is doing everything it can but it has little clout over the provincially-run project.
"The province has taken over ownership of that road and we get to stand on the sidelines and 'urge' them, and that's about it," the mayor said.
Much of the problem, Stewart added, came after one of the concrete guideway sections was damaged, prompting the project team to store pieces on site instead of having them delivered just before installation to avoid potential delays.
Coun. Mae Reid described North Road as "shades of [Vancouver's] Cambie Street all over again, where nobody listens."
(In Vancouver, the cut-and-cover construction of the Canada Line proved devastating to some Cambie Street businesses.)
Perry Staniscia, the city's manager of strategic initiatives, said Coquitlam staff have been in constant communication with the Evergreen Line project team and "we continue to apply as much pressure as we can, knowing we have no legal authority to make them do it."
Council agreed to send a letter to the Evergreen project team, as well as to Tri-City MLAs, requesting on-street parking be returned to North Road as soon as possible.
