I am writing this to try and better understand the parking problem in the downtown core.
I work downtown and have had an off-site parking stall for years.
I received a letter that has informed me that my stall rental will increase over 47 per cent.
I along with many of my fellow employees were all for metered parking downtown to curb the misuse of these spaces.
The meter parking was on the core review along with increasing the off-street parking.
The businesses in the downtown were consulted and in the end the meter parking was taken from the core review.
The off-street parking was linked to the metered parking as per the core review recommendations, so why was it not?
This was stated in the core review - page 12 - bylaw - "reinstating paid on-street parking would support higher off-street parking."
The summary of opportunities completed and/or ongoing - approved by council July 8, 2013 page 3, No. 2.6 - off-street parking agreements:
That council takes no further action regarding off-street parking. So what happened?
If I was following along closely I would, as of July 8, have felt the parking issue was behind us.
Then without any notice to the voters bylaw No 7557, 2004, section C-2(c) was amended by bylaw # 8533, 2013 and had all three readings done on Sept. 9, 2013. One month later a notice was sent out. This bylaw page 97, c-2(b) - parking permit rates - city council parking permit - no fee. I am not to sure what this means.
We lost about 80 per cent of off-street parking stalls to accommodate the new police station. Why did we not put a parking structure in the plans to accommodate growth. Are we just going to acquire more off-street parking from the public, as police force is needed.
To generate the revenue being lost because of the loss of the parking stalls taken for the police, the city will just increase the current off-street parking at a rate of anywhere from 47 to 100 per cent.
I am sure come Jan. 2014 downtown businesses will see more vehicle parking in front of their establishments than before.
So I would like to know how this rate increase is going to improve the on-street parking problem?
We are homeowners and have seen our utility and taxes increase. I can not speak for everyone, but from what I see, most wages have not increased even close to cover these things.
Murray Mooney
Prince George
