Off Street Parking Rates Issue Returning to Council
Prince George, B.C.- The issue of off street parking rates will be coming back before Prince George City Council.
Three Councillors, Frank Everitt, Lyn Hall and Murry Krause, will present a “Notice of Motion” when Council convenes Monday, January 6th for it’s first meeting of the new year. The three are requesting the issue be brought back on February 3rd for discussion and decision.
Council unanimously approved increasing the rates for off street parking at a meeting in July of this year. Councillor Frank Everitt says at the time the increase was being put before them, the conversation was about bringing Prince George rates in line with comparable communities and no one realized the magnitude of the hike.
The reality of the increase didn’t hit people until notices were received in October. The increases were not of the 5% nature that had been applied to other user fees in the City, in some cases, the new cost to rent a stall was more than double the existing rate.
The notice of motion being filed by the trio of Councillors calls for incremental increases. There is nothing that can be done to change the bylaw that kicked in on January 1st, so, in order to provide time for discussion, and three readings of a new bylaw, the trio suggests a new bylaw to come into place April 1st that would see the rates rolled back to reflect a 10% increase over the 2013 rates for the balance of 2014. Then a further 10% increase in 2015, and another 10% in 2016.
The incremental increases are more in keeping with the City’s previous practices reads the Notice of Motion “Previous fees and charges bylaws reflected an incremental increase in rates over a period of time. The current off-street fees bylaw sets out a one-time lump sum increase.” The Notice also calls for improved public information on the changes “When establishing a fees and charges bylaw it is important that we are consistent with the fee structure by establishing incremental increases. As well, to make sure that increases are affordable and realistic to the consumer, and to provide consumers with a comprehensive communication plan outlining the proposed increases.”
Councillor Frank Everitt says a new bylaw has to be created to “correct the error”. He says the matter was passed at a time when there was a full plate of Core Review ideas being presented “We had a massive amount of things to deal with, there were Councillors who wanted to spread it over a couple of days in order to spend the appropriate amount of time on it, and the presentation we got was that we were simply going to look at increasing it ( rates) from where they were to what other cities were, and I think that’s where the discussion flowed to, no one thought about the magnitude of going from where we were to what was suggested.”
Everitt says the reaction from the public to the rates that kicked in yesterday has been very negative, and that’s what precipitated the discussion about what can be done to rectify the situation.
Here are the proposed rate changes as contained in the Notice of Motion:
Everitt is optimistic the proposed changes will be met favourably by a majority on Council “ I think that we’ve had enough communication from the public that others will see the merit in what we’re doing.”
Comments
So these “professionals” could not think or see this back when? I do hope some of this council……wakes up and starts being more accountable…and start representing the public…
Maybe administration should be doing their homework considering there were at least 3 of them at a council meeting that could not even inform the mayor and council how many parking lots the city has….shame..
17 is a lot for the size of this city.
It really doesn’t matter what the City charges for off-street parking. Businesses either pay with a user fee or they pay on their property taxes with the off-street parking reserve which is charged to businesses in the downtown to cover losses on the parkades.
Higher parking rates mean lower property taxes. Lower parking rates mean higher property taxes.
The argument basically boils down to whether we should pay with our left hand or our right hand. In the end it still comes from the same wallet.
The advantage of user fees are that Government doesn’t contribute to the off-street parking reserve because they don’t pay property taxes. Higher parking rates mean that the Federal and Provincial contribute to the off-street parking.
The more Federal and Provincial government money we can get into Prince George, the better.
most people ive talked to have either got into a private lot or say they are going to park at city hall parking lot.
“I do hope some of this council……wakes up and starts being more accountable…and start representing the public…”
Um, Did you read the article? Isn’t that exactly what the three are doing here? They are admitting a mistake was made and are taking steps to correct. And where did you come up with the stunning revelation that ” 17 parking lots is a lot for the size of this city”. How many would suit you? 14? How many stalls each?
maybe they can have a look at rescinding the new business liscence regulation for having one rental unit.
“The more Federal and Provincial government money we can get into Prince George, the better.”
And where does that money come from icicle? Tax payers maybe?
They are reading this into by laws vestedinterest. You would think they would be competent enough to do the research before they voted it in. Who told them we needed to bring the rates to the level of other communities. Don’t you think a competent person would say how much will that increase our parking rates by and will that piss anyone off? They react after the fact because of the uproar? As Donald Trump would say “you’re FIRED”.
Hmmmm…this is an election year. Wouldn’t be suprised to see more of
these “corrections”.
At this point, it is too late. My wife has already given up her space, and we are carpooling instead. And, just as importantly, I get a little tired of this council using other cities to determine rates: one of the few good things about living in Prince George is the cost of living here-if I have to pay as if I live in Kelowna or Kamloops, what is the incentive to live here? I have lived in PG a long time, and this is easily the most incompetent council and mayor that I have ever seen in office. Raise taxes, reduce services.
Flash: “At this point, it is too late. My wife has already given up her space, and we are carpooling instead.”
Life is about making choices and adapting to different situations. It sounds like you and your wife has come up with an alternative rather than sitting at home and whining. Good for you. And good for the environment too!
I love election year, so when does the mayor start kissing everyone’s cheeks to get them to vote for her, brobably not until later in the year is my opinion.
This proposal seems reasonable considering that they missed the mark the first time around.
Our number one priority should be to utilize the parkade’s and off street parking to the maximum. We then need to ensure that the two hour parking on City streets is not abused.
What we don’t need is a Council and City Administration running around finding all sorts of ways to increase our service charges, and then pretending that they are holding the line on tax increases.
One of our major problems in this city is the spending of tax dollars. We need to get spending under control.
The Mayors 10% decrease in all departments has morphed into an over all increase that probably exceeds 10% once you factor in increases in service charges, parking, taxes, etc;
Very simple, people chose to elect a Tax Heavy Mayor who has NO interest in what the citizens want…..its that simple, dont vote for her next time as she has been the driving force behind increasing Taxes over and Over and OVER again!
It’s a little late to now have a conversation about the actual cost of the increase rates for off street parking….the time to ask for changes to this bylaw was in July when it was presented and as mentioned by other posters people have already made changes to deal with the increase.
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