People who have covered parking with plug-ins at some downtown parkades are the big winners while surface lot users are hardest hit under a new off-street parking plan adopted by city council on Monday night.
After initially setting new rates for 2014 last fall, city council began the process of rolling those increases back at its meeting on Monday after those using the off-street parking said the sudden jump would cause financial hardship. Beginning in April, all users will see their rates go up 25 per cent from the 2013 base and then increase an additional 15 per cent each year in 2015 and 2016.
Drivers that had the biggest increases imposed on them under the initial plan are better off under the revised plan - in some cases paying less in the proposed 2016 rates than they would have this year. Others, particularly those in surface lots rather than parkades, will pay substantially more in 2016 than they would have under the original plan.
For instance, someone with a covered spot and plug at the Second Avenue parkade was paying $48.66 a month before taxes in 2013 and saw their rates increase to $90 this year. Once the 25-15-15 plan is fully implemented in 2016, they would only be paying $80.44 a month.
Someone who rented a spot in the Vancouver Street lot, however, would have been paying $55 under the original 2014 plan but now will also be paying $80.44 a month by 2016 without the same degree of amenities as those with covered spots.
"We could have some cases where people would be paying some additional money and I don't think that's what people wanted to have happen," Coun. Frank Everitt said Wednesday.
Everitt, along with Coun. Lyn Hall and Coun. Murry Krause, first proposed increasing rates by 10 per cent for each of the next three years. That would have meant lower rates for everyone, but other councillors said it wouldn't bring in enough revenue to fund capital improvements and could impose too heavy a burden on downtown property owners who pay a parking levy on top of their municipal taxes.
The 25-15-15 plan was a compromise proposed by Coun. Garth Frizzell and supported by a majority of council. Everitt was the only member of the 10-10-10 club to vote against amending the motion because he felt 10-10-10 was the more realistic approach. Once the motion was amended, Everitt along with Krause, Hall, Frizzell, Brian Skakun and Albert Koehler voted in favour to ensure it passed.
Mayor Shari Green, one of three around the council table to vote against the change, said the 25-15-15 plan went too far. But Everitt said there will be opportunities for future municipal councils to modify the 15 per cent increases in 2015 and 2016 to ensure they're fair.
"Subsequently as we do budgets every year there is an opportunity to look at those things," he said.
The original 2014 rate hike also cut down the number of parking price points from 11 to seven, but the 25-15-15 plan keeps the 11 different pricing options in place.
Before the new rates can officially come into effect, council must pass a bylaw at a future meeting.
The city currently operates 2,016 parking stalls, of which 1,698 are available to be rented monthly and the rest are for hourly parking. Currently 1,196 of the monthly spots are occupied.
As an example, the Second Avenue parkade has 491 spots available for monthly rental, with 325 of them under cover and with a plug. Of those 325, only 158 are currently rented.
Some of the older parkades need major repair work done, which is why the rates are going up. Some councillors, like Everitt and Cameron Stolz, expressed disappointment the city hadn't been putting enough money away in prior years to take care of its aging infrastructure.
Director of public safety and civic facilities Rob Whitwham told council on Monday that the Second Avenue parkade, built in 1975, needs repairs and upgrades to the tune of $2.725 million in 2015 and the Plaza parkade requires $1.17 million in capital spending in 2016.
Funding for the downtown off-street parking program also comes from a special levy imposed on downtown property owners. If rates for those who rent parking spaces go down, then the levy would need to be increased.
Downtown Business Improvement Association executive director Carla Johnston said her group's members collectively pay $800,000 a year to keep the parking infrastructure intact.
"Ultimately, we believe users should be paying monthly rates in line with comparable cities like Kamloops," she said. "While the city has adjusted the rates accordingly, a phased-in approach would likely have been better received by the parkers. If phasing in the rate increases can meet the same end to get the funding needed, it's worth consideration."
Rather than looking at how other communities in B.C. set their rates, Everitt said the focus should be on what's right for Prince George.
"I think the difficulty was from the very start of it is we were comparing what other communities were [charging] as opposed to the price we were getting for ours and then just jacking it up to what someone else got," he said. "We didn't have, as Coun. Stolz said, have science or math applied to that in the first place."
