More changes are being proposed for on-street parking in the city's downtown core.
"The improvements should increase the availability of free on-street parking of vehicles belonging to customers and users of services in the downtown area of Prince George," said a staff report, which will come to city council for discussion on Monday night.
In the report, planning department staff outline a proposal to extend free parking by an hour to three consecutive hours and to make off-street hourly and daily spaces free between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. instead of the current $2 overnight fee.
The area patrolled by parking control officers would expand to include the entire area bordered by First Avenue, Winnipeg Street, 12th Avenue/Patricia Boulevard and Scotia Street and staff are recommending they begin their work at 7 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. to "deal effectively with the primary abusers" of on-street parking.
The three-hour time limit would not apply to Victoria Street from First to Seventh Avenue, which would be changed to a 30-minute parking zone, nor would it apply to areas that are already signed as limits of less than two hours (such as 15- or 30-minute zones).
According to the report, these changes are being proposed despite the amount of parking tickets increasing. In 2014, there were an average of 639 parking tickets issued per month.
In the first eight months of 2015, that has increased 19 per cent to 762 per month.
More than half of those tickets are for parking longer than the posted time limit.
About 13 per cent of parking tickets the city issues go to collections if they haven't been paid after six months and about 35 per cent of those fines get paid ($14,100 out of $40,275).
The city tows if vehicles are parked illegally or have two or more parking violations attached to them.
In the first eight months of the year, 85 vehicles were towed.
The report also includes further information on licence-plate recognition to "further enhance parking control's ability to monitor violators more effectively."
A budget of $450,000 was set aside to purchase and implement a system in 2014.
