The City of Nelson is considering changes to its residential parking permit program and to the parking rates at the parkade.
These were presented to council by planner Alex Thumm and by deputy financial officer Aimee Mooney at council’s May 7 meeting.
The ideas presented, they said, were in line with city’s parking strategy adopted by council in 2021, and would be a move toward implementing it. The presentation was made as a workshop and no decisions were made.
Two-hour parking
Thumm proposed that the city start charging a $40 annual fee ($3.33 per month) for residential parking permits in Lower Uphill. These permits are currently free.
He said $40 per year would recover administration costs of the program and perhaps the costs of greater enforcement, but it would not be enough to contribute to street maintenance.
Currently the residential parking permit program applies in a part of Lower Uphill with two-hour parking zones. The free permits are given to dwelling units that do not have off-street parking.
Currently, only one permit is given for each lot even though it might have two or three dwelling units on it. For example, if there are three dwelling units on a lot and two off-street parking spaces, only one dwelling unit is eligible for a permit.
About 225 permits are in effect now for about 400 spaces, of which about 50 are reserved for permit holders only.
Thumm gave council a list of other cities across the country that charge for permits, the nearest being Kelowna at $35. He said many cities the size of Nelson charge up to $100.
According to Statistics Canada, he said, the average spending on transportation, including cars, in B.C. is $10,879 per year.
“Adding a $40 permit should not be a barrier from an equity viewpoint,” he said.
The 2021 parking strategy
Thumm said the objectives of the 2021 parking strategy are fourfold: to increase parking enforcement; to optimize use of existing street parking; to better accommodate visitor parking (including tradespeople); and to acknowledge the value of, and high demand for, street parking by charging for it and thereby shifting the cost burden from property taxes.
As a further way to implement the strategy, Thumm proposed issuing second permits to households in Lower Uphill, not just for two-car families but because many downtown-area homes are shared by multiple, non-related adults living together as roommates.
Thumm said issuing second permits would respond to demand because many people own second vehicles, but on the other hand the increased demand would be for the same number of existing spaces.
He recommended that a second permit should cost more than a first permit, adding that the city’s parking strategy recommends $15 per month or $180 per year.
A second permit policy could get complex depending on how it is administered and could be done as a pilot project, he said.
The average Nelson household owned 1.19 vehicles in 2021 according to ICBC and census data, he said, and 0.49 cars per person in 2022.
Parkade
Mooney told council that the Vernon Street parkade has 191 stalls, with 156 allocated to monthly permit holders at $100 per month. The remaining stalls are for day use.
Mooney said on a typical weekday about half the stalls are vacant, and said the proposed changes would attempt to make better use of the space.
Mooney recommended that council remove monthly permits and implement day-rate parking to maximize use of stalls and encourage different modes of transportation. She recommended an hourly rate of $2, to be in line with street parking fees, or a daily rate of $8.
The city will introduce a parking app at the parkade this summer, which will allow online payment and also notification on whether a space is open.
Mooney and Thumm said their recommendations will come to council more formally in the coming months.
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