9 Sep 2024 Council meeting Transportation

Commercial Street Construction Project - Parking Management

Motion
That Council direct Staff to suspend pay street parking in the downtown for the duration of Commercial Street Phase One project and replace it with a 2-hour time limit.
Sources
Agenda itemCity agenda
Staff reportPage 1
Purpose
To seek Council direction on pay parking downtown for the duration of the Commercial Street Phase One construction.
Staff report, page 1
Staff recommendation
That Council provide direction to Staff of its desired downtown parking approach during Commercial Street Phase One construction.
Staff report, page 1
DocumentsStaff report about Transportation & Mobility

Ben Geselbracht Yes

Councillor Gesselbrock? Thanks, Mayor. Just through you to staff. Appreciate bringing this forward. You know, I think that the merchants downtown, you know, are somewhat disrupted with the construction and some are having a hard go. a lot of discussion down there and i think we definitely need to go out of our way to to make it as easy as possible on them i think we're asking quite a lot from them and you know hopefully they're going to benefit from the improvements that we're making um for the delegation sorry you're making them i was just gonna ask a question uh let's just ask a question so uh just with the off street on street parking um I agree like having a turnover is important because you want people to keep going to the shops, but also attracting, making it attractive for people. So like for the first two hours, can you make it so that it's free, but then after those two hours, either you just charge the regular rate or they get a ticket if they're there. Like is there a bit of nuance in what we can do there? Councillor Gesselbroke, you just turned yourself off. I'm happy to support the motion.

Sheryl Armstrong Yes

website you have it that the Pioneer Parkade is operational it's not the they still have it closed they expect to keep it closed for another month or two months because they haven't got to the repairs so it shows people directs them there but it's not open that's about about 60 spots

Questions and answers

Councillor Sheryl Armstrong
Speaker identificationConfident
Yes

asked
You saw there was two options there. What is the NBA's position on opening up number one port drive? Do you think that would satisfy your needs, or do you prefer the other option of the two-hour time limit on the street?
A guest answered
I think we would prefer the two hour time limit on the street. We were also asking for park aids as well. The park aids are down by the downtown because on commercial there's only about 14, I counted tonight, maybe 17 parking spots still open on commercial. And then there is about four to seven on Skinner depending on how people park. so we're hoping to have both options for people because some people would rather park in the park aids and some people rather park in the street thank you thank you thank you

Councillor Ben Geselbracht
Speaker identificationConfident
Yes

asked
thank you Councillor Gesselbrock your question to staff just with the park aids I think it was mentioned in the in the report is there a way to do a portion for free or is that just completely table of having free parking in the parkades, even during different portions of time, or will we just go broke if that happened?
City staff answered
Mr. Your Worship, to Councillor Gasser-Prak, the challenge with the parkades is there's a number of monthly pass holders, paid pass holders, as well as paid contracts for spaces. So if we were to provide free parking in there, there's an equity problem. So we also have the same kiosk technology problem that we can't just provide two hours free and then charge. So it's either free, time limited, which is an equity problem, or we leave it as it is.
followed up
And just to follow up on that, what about just a certain portion? Like maybe, you know, the paid customers get their parking spot exactly in that spot, but you know what? We're going to have 25% of the park aid available. If you park in these spots, it's for free. And if you stay here for longer than two hours, we'll give you a ticket. Is that possible?
City staff answered
Sorry, what I'm hearing is, so keep the monthly pass holders on their contracts, carve out a part of the parkade and just implement two-hour, time-limited free parking within that space. So that would technically be possible. It would require some signage and some management to be able to make that happen. so we didn't actually cost that out but I think I think technically it's possible but it would require a little bit of effort to arrange that okay thank you
followed up
that would be something that I would consider like I think the parking on the street for the two hour of time limit I'm opposed to having a new parking lot created and I think the distance from the downtown is a barrier so people wouldn't really use it but I think if we can go a little bit extra and like even 10% or whatever is feasible in the parkade to do the two-hour thing, I think that would go a long way for, you know, just relieving a little bit of the burden.