Downtown parking to be reviewed

PRINCE GEORGE – The Makerie opened its doors two years ago … on the eve of COVID. It has survived. But one issue has its owner Kim Hayhurst steamed. Downtown parking. The rules for downtown parking are a bit convoluted. An individual is allowed three hours of free parking downtown. However, the technology can’t differentiate WHAT three hours. So if someone is downtown at nine in the morning for an hour and leaves, but returns at four in the afternoon, the technology has that vehicle in the downtown for seven hours and a $50 ticket is issued.

“We should be inviting people into our downtown and welcoming them instead of giving them any potential reason to not go there and to only then support our big boxes,” says Hayhurst. “And so I find that any limit on parking, just to be kind of dismissive of visitors and our own residents to come down to our downtown.”

But Hayhurst also offered up some solutions. She says there is more modern technology, such as the HotSpotMobile app. What I have heard from people is they’re not honestly opposed to paying for parking. I think we all know that that’s just how things are going. And when you look at other communities around the province and beyond, the cost of parking is high and so people are prepared to pay. So we have a solution right now where with our park that there is an app in a place where you can go and pay.