(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
December 09, 2014 - 7:26 PM
VERNON - A Vernon city councillor hopes to make the downtown core a more inviting place by giving shoppers a grace period at the parking meter.
Coun. Brian Quiring led a motion to have city staff investigate the possibility of establishing a five minute grace period at expired meters.
“I think you should be able to run in and take two seconds to get a loonie to plug your meter and not worry about getting a ticket in that span of time,” Quiring said.
Bylaw currently provides a three minute grace period—but only for recently plugged meters. Currently, if an individual ran into a store to get some change without plugging the meter at all, there’s no grace period.
Quiring’s motion was prompted by an email from a disgruntled shopper who ran in to get some change and returned to find a $25 parking ticket.
“I think it’s a pretty common situation,” Quiring said. “Downtown is struggling right now and when you get an email with a disgruntled shopper that says they’re going to go back to where there’s free parking and lots of stores... that to me says we better fix what we have and quick.”
He said the grace period could be as simple as having bylaw officers walk down the street, conducting other checks, before returning a few minutes later.
“It’s all about trying to be more customer friendly,” Quiring said.
Staff will look into the idea and bring its findings back to council for further consideration.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014