Kamloops won’t ring in the new year with new fees at its downtown parkades.

City staff recommended charging a fee on Saturdays at the Lansdowne and Seymour Street parkades after January 1st – when the city takes over management.

But councillors have deferred doing so until at least July, when a Parking Management Plan is finished.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly made the motion to defer.

“I think it just makes sense for us to do it at one time, instead of a piecemeal approach which is what would happen. Maybe the parking management plan comes back in July and says maybe we should be having fre parking, and then we’d have to change it again. And so let’s make an educated decision on a study that we’re paying to have done right now,” he says.

The city will take over management of the Seymour and Lansdowne Street parkades on Jan. 1.

Mayor Ken Christian was the only member of council who voted against the wait-and-see, saying Saturday parking fees at the parkades would make sense after Jan. 1 when the city begins managing them.

“And I’m also conscious of the fact that the Downtown Parking Facilities Solution Infrastructure reserve fund needs the money. And we can talk about deferring expenses all we like, but at the end of that exercise is a taxpayer.”

City staff estimate bringing in a Saturday parking fee at those parkades would’ve brought in an extra $140,000 each year.