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DECEMBER 14, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 149
Council postpones planned parking rate hike downtown ANDREA KLASSEN
STAFF REPORTER
andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
DAVE EAGLES/KTW
Following an appeal from the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association, city council has agreed to keep parking rates downtown at $1.25 per hour for 2018.
City council is rolling back a planned downtown parking rate increase for 2018, but staff worry it could be a costly decision. Rates were set to rise from $1.25 per hour to $1.50 per hour on Jan. 1, but the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association (KCBIA) asked council to hold off until the city finds a use for the cash it will generate. Councillors voted to wait 6-3, with councillors Tina Lange, Pat Wallace and Donovan Cavers opposed. KCBIA president Mike O’Reilly and executive director Gay Pooler noted the city is already generating a surplus each year from the meters, money intended to pay for parking improvements, but has so far not used the money. Council recently voted down a study of the area’s parking needs, with a price tag of $100,000, which would have been funded from the surplus. O’Reilly said he wants some other action taken on parking downtown before rates change. ”If there are things put in place that would warrant an increase, something that would add value to the downtown businesses and retailers, that’s something we could take to our board and approve or not. But right now, there’s nothing,” he said.
New screens?
The City of Kamloops is hoping a new iPad-style screen not yet available in North America could reduce complaints about its downtown parking kiosks. Community safety and corporate services director David Duckworth said the city has asked contractor Precise ParkLink to let it pilot the touch screens, which will replace the existing keyboard setup, as soon as they are available. The screens are already being used in Europe. “They’re hugely successful, apparently,” Duckworth said, noting the city will need to see how they hold up in Kamloops’ cold winters. Duckworth is waiting on a quote for the cost of the screens, which he hopes might cross the Atlantic by late 2018. The city is also planning to internally pilot Woosh!, a new app to pay for parking via phone. Duckworth said if the app, also being tested in Ottawa, is successful it could roll out to the public by mid-year.
However, because the request comes less than a month before rates were set to rise and the city’s parking kiosks have already been programmed, rolling back the rate increase could cost the city. Director of corporate services and community safety David Duckworth said it’s possible the city will be charged as much as $25,000, $250 per machine, for reprogramming to cancel the change, which would be outside the city’s contract with supplier
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Precise Parklink. While he eventually clarified the company may not charge the city at all, some councillors were concerned by the fee. Cavers said the request came too late and attempted a motion to leave the increase in place, which did not find a seconder and was not debated. Coun. Denis Walsh said the city has the funds to cover the fee if it must. “This would cost taxpayers zero dollars because it comes out of the parking reserve fund,” he said. “If there is this charge, it will come out of that fund. We have $300,000 in a reserve fund with no plan and no vision.” A new plan for the cash is on the way for the new year, however. CAO David Trawin said staff will bring a proposal to council for a more expansive transportation study for the city core, which will look at transit, decreasing reliance on single-passenger vehicles and other issues as well as parking issues. Coun. Arjun Singh, who voted against the parking study, indicated some support for the revised concept, so long as parking isn’t the only priority. “If we talk about this as a parking study we lose,” he said. “I think we have to talk about it as a transportation study.” The issue could be debated by February.