The decision on the return of paid parking to the downtown area is taking a summer break.
After nearly an hour of discussion, Prince George city council voted to postpone the decision on awarding a contract worth more than $1 million to Aparc Systems for the supply and installation of pay parking and licence plate recognition equipment.
The idea, put forward by Coun. Lyn Hall, will allow for council to get a technical briefing on the proposed system as well as fuller idea of many of the costs involved with operating an on-street parking system.
Council will resume discussion and make a decision on the staff recommendation to go with Aparc, which was one of six bids filed in response to the city's request for proposal, on Sept. 23.
"We need to step back from where we are today," noted Coun. Frank Everitt.
Mayor Shari Green along with Couns. Cameron Stolz and Dave Wilbur were not in favour of delaying the decision.
"The reality is the taxpayer has subsidized this free parking, which has been an abysmal failure for about a half a million dollars now into this," said Green. "And I think that for somebody who certainly intended to come here and get us on that fiscal sustainable path, seeing yet another delay and more costs incurred is not what people sent me here to do."
Earlier Green had outlined the process of decision making, beginning with an 8-1 vote in March 2012 to return to pay parking downtown, followed by a vote to head into the request for proposal process as well as a vote during the core services review discussions to set the rate at $1 per hour.
According to Wilbur, the two-year free parking pilot had only served to exacerbate the pre-existing problem of "freeloaders" who were abusing the system and taking up parking spaces all day. He called the test run "a dismal failure."
Coun. Garth Frizzell argued against the notion that the two-year pilot project to remove the parking meters had been a failure.
He pointed to reports that downtown businesses had experienced as much as a 14 per cent increase during the two-year period.
Stolz argued that some of those increases would be better attributed to people feeling more safe and secure in the downtown area with the introduction of the RCMP's downtown enforcement unit and the removal of the P.G. Hotel as opposed to simply removing a charge for parking.
And after months of calling for a formal seat at the table, the Downtown Business Improvement Association will get their wish.
They will have the opportunity to address council as a delegation at the upcoming meeting and present some of their ideas.
"I'm looking forward to the opportunity of working with them," said DBIA president Rod Holmes. "There were some questions we wanted answered and we weren't getting answers."
During the meeting, both Hall and Wilbur suggested the DBIA could be doing more to get serial offenders within their own membership to fall in line.
"There's 40 and 50 people who are causing this grief for everybody. If they would just be responsible we wouldn't be having this concern," Holmes acknowledged. However, he said the DBIA doesn't have the authority to enforce the rules, like the city does.
"The city has a certain amount of teeth in their existing bylaws - amending the bylaws to enforce what is currently there, collect the money that is currently there," said Holmes. "If you look at the money that's not being collected, if it was collected, it would probably pay its way."
Proposed dates for the yet-to-be-scheduled committee of the whole meeting are Aug. 21 and Aug. 28.
