The city wants to hear what the public thinks about its proposed changes to downtown parking.
Residents are being asked for feedback as the city looks to update its Downtown Area Parking Plan, which looks at parking supply, demand and development impact on neighbouring residential areas.
“Last fall, residents and businesses shared with us their downtown parking experiences and opinions,” said Dave Duncan, parking services manager for the city.
“Based on what we heard, we gathered more data and developed recommendations to improve parking by offering more payment options and finding creative, cost-effective ways to increase parking capacity—especially in high demand areas.”
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Updating the plan is part of the city-wide Parking Management Strategy, which was endorsed by council in 2014. It identified downtown as a neighbourhood that required a detailed area parking plan.
According to the city, public input received in 2017 was used to draft the Downtown Area Parking Plan, and any additional feedback received will be considered by staff when finalizing the plan before presenting it to council for endorsement .
“One recommendation we’re looking for feedback on is whether residents should be able to offer public rental of unused, legal residential parking spaces,” said Duncan.
“This opt-in parking program could increase parking availability while also reducing the city’s investment over time in parking infrastructure.”
Changes to the monthly parking pass program are also being looked at to improve parking availability. Alternatives could offer cost-effective, flexible options for those who want to get downtown by other means of transport at times, such as by riding a bike, but feel obligated to drive because they’ve already paid for a whole month of parking.
The city says for those people, the option to buy discounted daily parking credits to use over an extended period could be provided.
The city parking plan survey will be online until Nov. 28. To learn more about proposed parking changes and take the survey go to getinvolved.kelowna.ca.
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