The Director of Community Services in Kamloops says a Performing Arts Centre and the issue of downtown parking should not be linked.

Byron McCorkell says parking is an entirely different conversation, and he points out a recent traffic demand study said there is enough downtown parking for at least five years.

“The concept of a facility in the downtown has always talked about the fact that parking would be had in the downtown core,” he said. “Whether it would be parking on street or in a parkade are, again, parts of the conversation. Even if we were to do a parkade, everyone who uses the performing arts centre would not be parked in a parkade.”

The proposed Performing Arts Centre would have more than 70 parking spots for staff and facilitators of the building.

“It’s really about how we’re managing [the downtown parking stalls] at this point.”

Meanwhile, local philanthropist Ron Fawcett, who is spearheading the project, also says public parking for the PAC is the city’s responsibility.

“When we did the design and the plan, I mean there wasn’t known what parking demands were,” Fawcett told council. “There is a place where we could put another full level if the city wants to do that. That really is underground, and it’s already designed in that they can do it, if that’s what the city wants.”

Fawcett says the space available underground could accommodate 170 stalls, but he thinks the city would be better served with a parkade, as he says two levels of underground parking is “very expensive to build.”