A trio of councillors will attempt to soften the blow bemoaned by the city's off-street parking facility customers.
A notice of motion was filed by councillors Lyn Hall, Murry Krause and Frank Everitt to look at changing the monthly parking rates from a lump sum hike to a 10 per cent increase.
If supported, the changes wouldn't take effect before April, with additional annual 10 per cent increases proposed for 2015 and 2016. The matter will come before council at the Feb. 3 meeting.
"[Residents] would have to pay the fees that are in place now on Jan. 1 and then subsequently, if this passes, it would go to a more realistic approach," said Everitt.
It's an approach council adopted in previous discussions about rate increases. During the core services review process, increases to items such as business licences recreational user fees were approved with yearly five per cent boosts.
"When establishing a fees and charges bylaw it is important that we are consistent with the fee structure by establishing incremental increases," the notice of motion said. "As well, to make sure that increases are affordable and realistic to the consumer, and to provide consumers with a comprehensive communication plan outlining the proposed increases."
Many people who complained about the increases said they were not informed the rates were going up prior to receiving a letter from the city after the bylaw was approved in September.
The Downtown Business Improvement Association also spoke out against the rate of increase, which saw some facilities nearly doubling their monthly rental fees. The funds from the parking fees go back into maintaining the facilities.
"Double is pretty hard to swallow for folks, so we're looking at something that's more reasonable and I think is the right way to do it," said Everitt.
Under the councillors' proposal, rates this year, before tax, would range from $35.75 (Plaza parkade rooftop) to $88 (Sixth Avenue parkade), as opposed to $60 to $110 for the same locations.
In November, some members of council publicly expressed regret over the way the decision was affecting residents and asked about how they could change bylaw which was initially discussed during the marathon July 8 core review implementation plan meeting.
According to Everitt, it was a meeting too jam packed to fully digest everything.
"A couple of councillors had asked if we could spread it over time and we were told 'no,' we were only going to have that day," said Everitt. "And hindsight says we should have had more time."
Council was told bylaws could be reconsidered within a specific time frame, which had already passed.
But Everitt said they were told the reasons why they couldn't do something about it, as opposed to what they could do so they decided to dig into the issue further.
He said since he and Krause and Hall had been discussing the matter and all the emails they were getting, they decided to go forward with the notice of motion as a trio and hope to be supported by the rest of council.
"And I think this will be received as a positive thing from the community that we looked at it and said there's a mistake that needs to be corrected and here it is," said Everitt.
