Parking was front and centre at North Battleford city council Monday.
Traffic bylaw amendments were approved. The impact of the changes will be wide-ranging for everyone who parks downtown in the future.
While there will still be free parking throughout much of downtown, more parking areas on and off the street will see two-hour time limits enforced by Community Safety Officers. Other areas will be restricted to paid parking, and some lots will require permits for all-day parking.
There will be two-hour time-limit for on-street parking Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. covering the vast majority of the downtown area.
There will be two-hour time-limit-restricted off-street parking Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the following lots: 1241 - 101st St. (south of City Hall), 1051 - 101st St. (north of the liquor store) and 1052 - 101st Street (in front of the RCMP). Those will be added to the bylaw.
Off-street permit parking will be added at the following locations: 1022 - 101st St., 1041 - 103rd St., 1221 - 102nd St. and 1241 - 101st St..
A paid parking lot will be established at 1071 - 101st St., operation Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The bylaw was amended to establish permit parking fees for off-street lots. Bylaw section “E” was amended to add fees of $40 a month or $400 a year.
The City will also offer all-day permit parking at the 1221 - 102nd St. and 1071 - 101st St. locations.
Lots at 1022 - 101st St. and 1041 - 103rd St. are private leases and will be marked 24-hour reserved.
None of these changes are a surprise. The City had conducted and already approved a downtown parking action plan in 2017, and the proposed parking changes were also presented during the 2018 budget deliberations late last year. Plans were outlined at that time for the establishment of the paid lot at 1071 - 101st St.
City officials had long been concerned about a “free-for-all” parking situation downtown in which residents were parking on empty lots that weren’t designated parking areas. There were also concerns about cars being left parked on the street all day by employees during working hours.
“This is meant to discourage that kind of activity and to encourage the parking lot and on-street parking for customers downtown to encourage more shopping downtown,” said Bater of the changes.
For the all-day parking permits, a lottery was conducted by the City Planning and Development Department for those available stalls, as demand for the spots outnumbered the supply by a considerable amount. Bater emphasized that more all-day parking spots would become available at some point.
“We have a new lot being developed after the cinema is developed,” said Bater. “So there will be more slots available at that time.”
Most recently, the city sent out a press release announcing it would “begin regular, and ongoing, enforcement of all parking regulations across the City beginning Monday, July 23, 2018.”
Violators would be ticketed beginning on that date.
