Council Chambers July 8, 2024. Image credit: Adam Berls/CKPGtoday.ca Staff

By Adam Berls

city council

City moves forward on modernizing parking in downtown and hospital zone

Jul 8, 2024 | 8:06 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — The topic of parking in the downtown and at the hospital was discussed again at City Council Monday night.

A report from staff to council about modernizing parking in Prince George was brought forward, “in response, to provide options in response to motions made to modernize the downtown C1 Zone and address immediate parking concerns in the Hospital Zone.”

The primary motion to undertake a review of parking in the downtown and hospital zones was brought forward by Councillor Kyle Sampson at the June 12 meeting.

In the report, staff notes that “modernizing parking downtown is a significant undertaking and that this work will be most successful if integrated into larger conversations occurring on the Downtown (such as the Civic Core and OCP as example).”

Staff recommend that to modernize the parking strategy in downtown Prince George, and meet the notice of motion language, the following timeline and scope of work be undertaken:

yxs

Hotel to be developed at YXS

3h ago

Missing woman

Missing Mackenzie woman may be hitchhiking to Saskatoon or Vancouver

7h ago

Two Cariboo communities evacuated

8h ago

“The City of Prince George in Q3/4 2024 contracts the services of an experienced parking consultant to assess the existing strategy and provide guidance in developing options to deliver better parking experiences for patrons and business owners in the future. Staff believe this review should include:

• Community engagement
• An evaluation of the business case for each City owned parkade
• Consideration of the size and layout of the C1 Zone with a view of expanding the zone for the purposes of parking regulation only (not expanding the actual C1 zoned area)
• An inventory of the number of parking spaces provided downtown (both on and off- street) to help inform recommendations.”

Staff will then bring a report to Council in Q2 of 2025 with recommendations on a new, modernized parking strategy for downtown Prince George.

As to alleviating pressures in the Hospital zone, staff recommends in the report that a couple of actions be taken. The first is that “the area immediately surrounding medical services impacted by construction (namely UHNBC, the Northern Interior Health Unit, the John G. MacKenzie Family Practice, Kordyban Lodge, the Phoenix Medical Building, Simon Fraser Lodge, Iris House and the BC Cancer Agency) remain as they are with two (2) hours of free parking.”

The second recommendation is that “the remaining streets in the Hospital Zone be made available for pay parking using the HotSpot application. In line with other areas of the City, the rate for the extension of time beyond two (2) free hours would be $1.00/hour. The customer would also be able to park for the entire day for a cost of $7.00 which is consistent with pricing elsewhere in the city.”

Charlotte Peters, Manager of Bylaw Services, noted that a “lot of work will need to be done in order to get this done right.” Councillor Ron Polillo said that the modernization is “long overdue.”

Council passed both recommendations unanimously.

Local news. Delivered. Free. Subscribe to our daily news wrap and get our top local stories delivered to your inbox every evening.

—

X: @AdamBerls

Email: Adam.Berls@pattisonmedia.com