Parking close to Okanagan Lake will cost 25¢ per hour more than moving further inland.

(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca)

KELOWNA - Parking rates will vary in downtown Kelowna if a new parking plan is approved by city council on Monday.

Currently, most on-street parking costs $1.25 per hour with a maximum stay of two hours during the day. The new rate will be as high as $1.75 per hour in the “red zone” closest to Okanagan Lake during the summer.

Three zones are proposed for downtown.

The Red zone includes an area reaching from Water Street and side streets up to Ellis Street between Lawrence Ave and Clement Ave. Those spots will cost $1.75 for the first two hours between May 15 and Sept. 15, dropping to $1.50 for the rest of the year. If someone wants to stay an extra hour, it will cost double, or $3.50 in the summer.

Parkers will be charged $1.50 Saturdays and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the evenings.

The Green zone covers most of the rest of downtown west of Richter St. and is, basically, 25 cents an hour cheaper.

A small blue zone is $1.25 per hour on Sunset Drive and Ellis Street north of Clement Ave.

The plan calls for the new fees to be put in place as soon as council approves the new plan.

The rates will be reviewed periodically and adjusted in an effort to have 85 per cent of parking spaces occupied in each zone.

Other changes include increasing the cost of monthly parking in parkades by about $25 per month and charging developers the full cost of parking if they want to pay cash in lieu of the required number of parking stalls. Currently they pay 75% of the estimated costs.

That means such fees will jump by $25,500 in South Pandosy, Capri-Landmark and Midtown (Orchard Park area) to $33,000. Currently those areas pay what it would cost for surface parking. The new rate reflects the cost of parkades.

The downtown rate goes up by $10,500 because it’s already based on parkade costs and Rutland developers will only pay $2,000 more because it’s still based on surface parking costs.

There are about a dozen other recommended changes in the plan, which has been two years in the making.

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