The city’s new parking strategy is gearing up for changes in the way Barrie parks, and future rate increases.
Councillors gave initial approval Monday night to the strategy, in principle, as the guiding document to 2041.
Coun. Keenan Aylwin, who represents the downtown, where much of the paid parking is located, says it’s a comprehensive plan.
“We have a new app that’s coming to help with convenience in the downtown and on the waterfront, we have a fair fee structure for parking, better way-finding and signage to find parking, a waterfront shuttle pilot project that could help with tourism, better utilization of our existing lots, better management of parking spillover in the neighbourhoods around the waterfront and the downtown,” he said.
“It’s probably the most realistic parking strategy I’ve seen in my many years here,” said Deputy Mayor Barry Ward. “It gives us a path to follow and if we follow this path, our parking situation will be much improved.”
Proposed increases include on-street hourly rates to $1.50 from $1.25, off-street rates to $1.25 from $1 hourly and daily rates to $7 from $5.50 in the downtown, effective Oct. 4, 2021, and paid parking in the area around Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) on weekends as well as weekdays, effective Jan. 1, 2021.
“It’s incremental,” Ward said of the downtown rate increases. “People are used to paying during the day and they largely won’t notice paying another 25 cents.”
But extending paid parking to include weekday evenings in the downtown, until 9 p.m. (proposed to begin in April 2022), was referred back to staff for a full report in 2021.
“The downtown businesses are coming through a really tough time, especially the restaurants,” Ward said. “They’ve had their main street dug up for the past several months, COVID is still here. I don’t want to have this hanging over restaurants. Let’s look at this in a year’s time.
“I really believe this matter deserves a report all its own. I think it’s still hasty to look at it now,” he added. “I’m not opposed to extending the parking into the evening, but we have to look at it smartly.”
Ward says the city will also have a better idea where it stands with parking revenue in a year’s time.
City staff also recommend increasing hourly rates to $5 an hour from $2, and extending paid parking to seven days a week, to align more closely with the rates and hours charged at RVH, $6.50 an hour. Also recommended is increasing the early-payment fine to $50 from $20 and increasing the set fine to $60 from $30 in the hospital area. The proposed fines would not be effective until they are approved by the Ministry of the Attorney General.
Vehicles without trailers could park at the North Centennial and Tiffin Boat Launch parking lots from Dec. 1 to March 31 each calendar year, effective later this year, the maximum time limit for parking at the Barrie City Hall lot would be reduced from five hours to three hours, and parking at the Barrie Public Library downtown lot would be limited to a maximum of three hours.
Downtown monthly pass rates would increase to $66 from $60 for yellow passes and to $82.50 from $75 for green passes. The rate for annual yellow passes would increase to $633.60 from $576 and for the green annual pass remain at $792. The last increase was 2014.
The two-hour free parking would be extended to the paved lot off Chase McEachern Way for December 2020.
An increase to rates and fines for paid parking infractions in the waterfront area have already taken place. In June 2020, council approved an hourly rate of $10 and daily rate of $50 and, in August, the Ministry of the Attorney General approved an early-payment fine of $75 and a set fine of $100 for parking infractions in the waterfront area.
City staff say Barrie has changed significantly since the 2012 parking strategy. The city started charging visitors for parking on the waterfront, municipal parking lots were designated surplus and promoted for redevelopment, the new Transportation Master Plan set targets to increase walking, cycling and transit ridership, and the Official Plan project was launched to design policies that will help the community accommodate growth.
Rates are set to manage demand, so that popular parking locations cost more than under-utilized ones. This also allows Barrie residents to choose what is more valuable to them — paying a premium to park as close to their destination as possible, or saving money by parking farther away from their destination and then walking the rest of the way.
Tessa Williams, the city’s business services analyst for the transit and parking strategy, presented the plan to councillors Monday night and said it’s to address not only current parking issues, but future ones, too, up to 2041.
Guiding principles are financial sustainability, downtown enrichment and transportation diversification.
“One of the biggest takeaways from this project is our status-quo approach is not enough,” she said. “It won’t solve the issues that we’re facing. We’re going to need to be more creative when we consider solutions for the future.”
The only funding request in the strategy is $66,000 for signs, which would need to be manufactured and installed throughout the downtown, waterfront and hospital areas. And to support the ongoing upgrade of single-space meters to pay stations, the parking hardware budget would need to increase to $90,700 from $40,000.
The city manages 2,326 parking spaces downtown, approximately 1,253 off-street parking spaces in surface lots, 303 spaces in the Collier Street Parkade and 770 on-street parking spaces. These parking spaces serve the downtown business community, including the customers and employees that use government offices, professional services, restaurants, bars and retail stores in the area.
Future parking demand was projected based on anticipated population growth, changes in travel behaviour, infill development and changes to the municipal parking supply.
These projections indicate peak demand will reach 88 per cent by 2041, meaning demand will exceed effective capacity.
As of 2020, the city’s parking reserve is in a deficit and it is projected to further decrease. Both revenue and expenses have been relatively consistent during the past several years, suggesting the financial health will not improve without changes.
“I think council, whether we want to or not, will realize parking is not self-sustainable in the city,” said Coun. Sergio Morales. “We want it to be. But at the end of the day I think it’s just unrealistic to expect that parking is sustainable. I want it to be, but it just simply isn’t (under current conditions).”
