Starting next week, it’s going to cost money again to park on the street in downtown Kamloops.
After a lengthy discussion, council voted unanimously to bring back on-street parking, starting on May 19. Paid parking has been cancelled since March 20, as Kamloops staff has been trying to limit the potential spread of COVID-19 at common areas like parking meters.
Bylaw services manager Tammy Blundell says the issue is mainly on Victoria Street where employees are leaving their cars all day, but says the new rule is best off being universal.
“Perfect example is Walmart parking. You’re anywhere in a mall, you’re looking for the closest spot. We all do it, it’s human nature, we’re going to look for the closest spot. If you bring in paid parking only on Victoria Street, people are going to park on Lansdowne or Seymour.”
Blundell says temporary, 15-minute “loading zone” parking spots were brought in in front of some downtown businesses, shortly after parking meters were covered in March, such as restaurants that were open for take-out. She says that worked well for two weeks, but says more recently people have been ignoring those signs, and she says fines have been issued in some cases.
She also says 2-3-hour free parking areas downtown will also be enforced by bylaw again starting next week.
City staff say the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association initially came forward, at the request of local businesses, to request that on-street parking fees be brought back in.
Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 City-owned parking lot and parkade spaces downtown will remain free until at least August 4. City council will discuss during its meeting on July 14 how to proceed with bringing back parking fees in those spaces.
“I think there’s been a happy-medium with having our parking lots and our parkades free of charge,” councillor Mike O’Reilly says. “That we’re giving an option, 800-1,000 empty parking spots that we’re giving for free within a two-block radius of where a person may or may not work. That’s pretty good. Unfortunately you don’t get to park on Victoria Street, but we need to help all businesses in Kamloops.”
