With parking at a premium and the municipality in need of additional revenue sources, administration would like visitors to pay for parking in municipal parking lots.
Dave Osborne, the town鈥檚 licensing and enforcement manager, brought forward the idea during a committee-of-the-whole meeting Aug. 23.
鈥淭his past summer has been extremely busy. Our parking lots are full, our streets are full and we can only guess what next year holds for us,鈥� said Osborne, in reference to Parks Canada鈥檚 plan to offer free admission to the park in 2017.
鈥淚t would generate some revenue for the municipality and we could have some control over the time limits people are parking.鈥�
Currently parking in municipal parking lots is free of charge and there are no time limits, however under Alberta鈥檚 Traffic Safety Act vehicles can not be parked for longer than 72 hours. Parking in the central business district along Connaught Drive and Patricia Street is limited to two hours.
鈥淚f it鈥檚 metered we would generate revenue and people could stay extended periods of time because they鈥檙e paying for it,鈥� said Osborne. 鈥淚n some municipalities if you pay for parking, whatever the rates are, it generates a considerable amount of money and our infrastructure could use some of the benefits of that.鈥�
鈥淲e clean the parking lots, we line them, we remove the snow, all at a cost, so this would help off set those costs.鈥�
If the initiative is approved he said it would be implemented as a pilot project and residents would not be charged.
According to Osborne, there are 10 municipal parking lots in the townsite, which includes 383 parking stalls for cars, 72 spots for recreational vehicles, 15 handicap spots and six stalls for Parks Canada. In total the municipality鈥檚 parking lots can accommodate 476 vehicles.
Mayor Richard Ireland questioned whether the intended goal of the initiative was to improve parking or generate more revenue.
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure whether your initiative is circulation, in which case potential time limits rather than payment might be effective, or whether your real drive is revenue or whether it鈥檚 a combination of the two,鈥� said Ireland.
The mayor also reminded administration and council that several years ago the municipality looked at the idea of charging people for parking on the street and suggested that it would be prudent to undertake a larger traffic study to get a better sense about where paid parking might be most effective.
鈥淚鈥檇 rather see a more general approach to how we might regulate parking in the community,鈥� said Ireland.
The rest of council was split on the issue.
Coun. Dwain Wacko and Coun. Gilbert Wall strongly supported the initiative.
鈥淭his community continues to provide services for tourists which the community does not generate an awful lot of revenue from,鈥� said Wacko. 鈥淚 see this as an alternative source of revenue that we should look very seriously at implementing.鈥�
His comments were echoed by Wall.
鈥淚 completely support entertaining paid parking as part of an overall traffic strategy for Jasper, it鈥檚 an absolutely necessity in my mind,鈥� said Wall, pointing to Banff as a prime example of the traffic issues that Jasper could soon face.
He also went a step further and suggested drivers should be charged for parking on the street in front of businesses.
鈥淧remium parking is that parking stall that鈥檚 right in front of a business so in my mind it should be charged first, not last, because that鈥檚 the premium parking in the community,鈥� said Wall.
He also added that it would be prudent for the municipality to charge for parking because when the municipality goes to higher levels of government seeking alternative sources of revenue the first question they ask is whether the municipality has done all it can to find its own sources of alternative revenue, such as charging for parking.
Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey supported the idea of time limits, but was strongly opposed to making people pay for parking.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 agree with paid parking,鈥� said Kelleher-Empey.聽 鈥淚 like the idea of timed parking and I think we also have to really look at it because we have a number of hotels that have limited parking and some of the hotels have no parking and they park in the parking lots.鈥�
Coun. Rico Damota supported the idea, but didn鈥檛 want to see residents charged.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a great idea to explore and I鈥檓 always interested in trying to find other alternative sources of revenue for our community,鈥� said Rico.
He also questioned whether making people pay for parking in municipal lots would have a knock on effect and lead to more parked cars in residential areas.
Coun. Vonna Arsenault remained mum on the issue and Coun. Brian Nesbitt was absent for the meeting.
During the meeting council also directed administration to move forward and include a larger transportation plan for the community in the 2017 budget.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
