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November 16, 2015 - 12:36 PM
KELOWNA - Parking your car in Kelowna may get more expensive, and the penalties for those who violate the parking rules might go up as well.
City parking manager Dave Duncan, in a report to council, says the recommendation for rate increases comes as a result of an rise in transit fares this September, which automatically trigger a review of base parking rates.
“We need to maintain the alignment with transit and support ridership,” Duncan says.
Under the city’s parking management strategy, parking rates and violation penalties can be used to help keep people out of cars and the city has a series of guidelines it uses to establish those prices.
“Active management of both the supply of various types of parking and pricing can serve to discourage single-occupant vehicles and encourage other ways to commute, such as car pooling, cycling, walking and transit,” Duncan says.
For example, the minimum monthly parking rate is supposed to be 10 per cent greater than the adult monthly transit pass. Daily parking rates must be 10 per cent higher than the cost of a two way transit trip. Reserved parking stalls must be 50 per cent higher than the minimum monthly transit pass rate.
As a result, daily parking rates at city owned lots will rise to $6 from $5, monthly rates will rise to a minimum of $62 and reserved stalls will now cost $116.
Penalties for taking up two spaces or moving your car around on the same block will increase to $20 from $10, with a discounted early payment fine of $15.
The discounted penalties for several parking violations, currently $10 for payment within two weeks, are also facing an increase to $20, Duncan says.
“Before the rate increase in 2014, it cost $4 if you sat on the street all day, but now it costs $8, almost the same. The $10 discounted fine is not much of a deterrent. Some just park and play the game.”
On-street and hourly lot rates remain unchanged, however, disabled parking permits will now cost $20, up from $10.50.
Duncan says the increase means the city will no longer undercut the provincial charity SPARC that also sells the permits.
Kelowna councillors are considering the recommendations at a public council meeting today, Nov. 16.
Should the increases in parking rates and fines be approved, Duncan is recommending they take effect Feb. 1, 2016.
To contact the reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015