The city is expecting to reap $350,000 per year from the reintroduction of paid parking downtown.
As part of Monday's core services review discussion, council directed staff to draft a bylaw outlining a $1 per hour on-street parking rate when the new pay system is installed.
Pay parking would be in effect from Monday to Friday, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
According to the core review implementation plan, "administration's analysis indicates that an hourly rate that is less than $1 per hour will make implementation of the pay parking system cost prohibitive."
But Downtown Business Improvement Association president Rod Holmes said the plan could be business prohibitive.
"It doesn't take much of a jump to say that sales are going to go down by people not wanting pay parking," said Holmes, citing a report by Northern Hardware of a 17 per cent increase in sales when parking meters were removed on a two-year pilot basis in 2009. "People can go to a mall. You don't get the specialty stores, you don't get the specialty service you do downtown but it's free parking."
The release of the staff report with its recommendations to council last Wednesday was the first indication the DBIA had of the proposed parking rate, Holmes said.
Previous attempts at consultation have been rebuffed, he added. Since the council passed a resolution supporting the reintroduction of paid parking last year, the DBIA has been attempting to get the city to look at different options.
The group representing downtown businesses currently has a petition circulating that's already 1,100 signatures strong calling for the city to collaborate with the DBIA on the parking issue.
The petition is available at the DBIA office on Second Avenue or online at downtownpg.com.
"We're not living in the past. We believe that using current technologies the monitoring could be done, including the abuse of people moving back and forth around the block can be done for probably $160,000 to $170,000 a year, significantly less than what's currently being charged and much more effectively," said Holmes.
The city is in the final stages of a request for proposal process, which will award a contract for the supply and installation of new equipment. Previous rough estimates from the city has put the project in the $1.1 million range.
And while the city has cited other municipalities that pay $1 for downtown parking, Holmes said Prince George isn't at that point where it's necessary yet.
During the core review process, increases for off-street parking rates were also approved to bring the city's rates to par with Nanaimo, Kelowna and Kamloops.
"The proposed rates will all exceed the cost of a monthly adult bus pass, which would encourage some residents to use alternate forms of transportation (transit, carpool or active transportation)," the staff report said.
Those who wish to park their cars downtown all day should be taking advantage of the parkade options, Holmes agreed.
"If you were to come downtown at 8 o'clock in the morning, you would see an awful lot of vehicles on the street," he said, noting a lack of retail stores and few restaurants that are open at that hour. "And so it doesn't take much to jump to the conclusion that you've got people who are down there in their offices taking up space on the street."
Both the on- and off-street parking rates are scheduled to come into effect as of Jan. 1, 2014.
