Nelson City Councillors are considering making changes to the city’s parking strategy with the goal of maximizing the use of available parking, encouraging alternate modes of transportation, and promoting equitable access to parking for both visitors and residents.
During May’s City Council meeting, city staff Alex Thumm and Aimee Mooney presented council with several recommendations for the city’s parking strategy, which was developed and adopted in 2021.
Residential Parking
Currently, the City’s residential parking permit program generally applies to Lower Uphill Streets with restricted parking.
The city currently provides residents in that area one free permit per residential lot, which Thumm recommended the city change to add an annual fee of $40 or $3.33 per month, but also consider introducing the ability to purchase a second permit at a higher cost.
Thumm explained that the $40 annual fee would merely be a cost-recovery admin fee and potentially fund improved parking enforcement.
He also recommended that council explore introducing a second permit option for households with more than one dwelling unit per lot, at a cost of $15/month or $180/year.
Currently, the city has issued about 225 residential parking permits out of around 400 spaces, 50 of which are reserved for permit holders only.
Vernon Street Parkade
The Vernon Street Parkade currently has 191 stalls, with 156 allocated to monthly permit holders, with the remaining available for day use at a cost of $1.50/hour.
At the moment, there’s about a 62-person waiting list for monthly permits.
Deputy Financial Officer Aimee Mooney told council that despite full subscription to monthly permits, spot checks have shown that approximately 50% of the parkade stalls are vacant on any given day.
Mooney’s recommendations aim to improve the utilization of the parkade by removing monthly permits and introducing day-rate parking to maximize the use of its stalls, suggesting an hourly rate of $2 or $8/day.
She also suggested the city test out its mobile pay system in the parkade before it’s rolled out city-wide later this summer.
Mooney said implementing the mobile pay system in the parkade first will allow the city to iron out some of its wrinkles before a city-wide rollout, while making payment at the parkade more user-friendly and maximizing parking assets by moving away from monthly permits to day rates.
“When we implement the mobile payment option, we also want to move away from these monthly permit holders towards day rates. Daily permits will provide an immediate financial incentive to avoid driving and try new modes of transportation, kind of more of a, you pay for the days you use.”
Council didn’t approve any of the recommendations yet; further updates and decisions are expected to be presented to council in the coming months.
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