By JOHN MOORHOUSE June 17 Penticton Herald
Free parking -- for one hour -- will soon be back in downtown Penticton parking lots. After a lengthy debate, city council voted 5-2 Monday to allow one hour of free parking in five city-owned, off-street parking lots. Those wishing to park for longer periods of time will be required to pay. Council was urged to revisit the parking issue this spring, after the Downtown Penticton Association presented a 4,000-name petition objecting to the addition of more parking lot ticket dispensers behind the 200 and 500 blocks of Main Street. The DPA issued statements from many downtown businesses suggesting their sales have been negatively affected by the introduction of pay parking. The association suggested two hours of free parking Monday through Friday and all-day Saturdays. Curbside parking meters could remain. Coun. Garry Litke said council‘s decision represents a compromise and will make the parking lots consistent with the one hour of free parking allowed on Main Street which has no meters. Litke said pay parking was at odds with council‘s other efforts to support downtown. “We shouldn‘t be pretending to be promoting downtown business, when the business owners are telling us that the ticket spitters are hurting their business,” he said. “It seems to be a counter-productive tack that we‘re on right now and we need to change that.”
However, Coun. Joanne Grimaldi said merchants shouldn‘t expect free parking to be the answer to their economic woes. “Free parking is not going to be the panacea to some of these businesses,” she said. “They‘re going to falter, fail or be successful - but it won‘t be due to parking, it will be due to many other factors.” The move to one-hour free parking will come with a cost. Mitch Moroziuk, the city‘s director of development and engineering services, said anticipated revenue from the ticket spitters will drop to about $8,000 a year from the 2008 budget figure of $60,000. He added the complete removal of the ticket dispensers would have cost the city a $45,000 penalty - equal to the rent of the spitters for the remainder of the five-year contract with the rental company involved.
Councillors John Vassilaki and Dan Ashton were opposed to the one-hour plan. Vassilaki said one hour free parking is not long enough and wondered if the DPA might be willing to pay the one-time $45,000 penalty to eliminate the dispensers entirely. The rental firm has indicated the ticket dispensers could be replaced with a different model at no charge. City staff will meet with representatives of the Downtown Penticton Association to further discuss how to implement the one-hour free parking scheme. DPA president Andrew Jakubeit said he‘d still like to see free parking on Saturdays, but is willing to work with the city on how to implement the changes approved by council. “We thought our proposal for two hours free parking and Saturdays was a fair compromise,” he said afterwards. “But we‘re pleased that one hour free parking is moving forward. It‘s a step in the right direction.” Jakubeit said the DPA found it frustrating the city didn‘t consult more closely before it introduced the ticket spitters, but the association appreciates council acting on their concerns. No time frame for implementing the changes was discussed by council. It‘s likely that will be decided in tandem with consultation with the DPA.
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