Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Chad Klassen

DOWNTOWN PARKING

City council keeps free Saturday parking at downtown parkades, waiting for parking study

Nov 26, 2019 | 5:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — Downtown Parking Corp. has operated both the Landsdowne Street and Seymour Street parkades for the last 39 years. But starting Jan. 1, 2020, it will be operated by the city.

“In a quest to align what we have currently in our own parking lots and off-street locations, we would be asking council to consider implementing paid parking on Saturdays at both the Seymour and Landsdowne Street parkades,” said community and protective services director Byron McCorkell at council chambers on Tuesday (Nov. 26).

But the recommendation was shot down by council on Tuesday with an overwhelming 8-1 vote against. Instead, council wants to defer any fees for Saturday parking until the parking management plan is finished.

“I think it just makes sense for us to do it at one time, instead of a piecemeal approach, which is what would happen,” said councillor Mike O’Reilly. “Maybe when the parking management plan comes back in July and says we should be having free parking, then we’ll have to change it again.”

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The only one who voted against deferring the free Saturday parking decision was Mayor Ken Christian.

“I think the revenue is badly needed by the city,” he said. “Those costs just get passed down to the taxpayer at the end of the day if you don’t charge users.”

Christian says there will be costs related to retrofitting the parkades with new ticketing metres.

Carl DeSantis from the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association says deferring a decision was a wise one. He’s looking forward to the end product of the parking study.

“What we want is a plan to address the longer-term parking solutions,” said DeSantis. “Having parking congestion on Victoria Street, that’s a fantastic problem to have. That shows there’s interest in downtown.”

DeSantis says the challenge is for businesses in retaining employees due to a lack of parking.

“For businesses considering moving downtown — same problem. For the new developments that are being considered downtown, looking at conversations where there’s going to be a potential for organizations with a significant number of employees but no parking.”

The hope is the new parking management plan, coming out at the end of July, will help the city work towards some of those solutions.