Rates for on-street parking likely to rise beginning next year

Council’s transportation committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend increasing on-street parking rates and taking the power away from business associations, community associations and individual politicians to protect free parking.

The city hasn’t increased onstreet parking rates since 2008 and there are still some commercial areas, such as Wellington West, Westboro and Old Ottawa South, with free parking.

Things will likely start changing in 2020.

Where there are on-street rates of $3 per hour, the rates would increase to $3.50 per hour starting Jan. 1.

The city would also set a maximum hourly rate of $4 in 2020 and apply flexible supply-and-demand rates in some zones. When there’s higher demand, hourly prices would increase in 50-cent increments, and the opposite would happen at low-demand times. The maximum rate could change through the annual city budget processes.

There would be no change to the off-street parking garages and lots.

The transportation committee unanimously endorsed the staff recommendations to increase onstreet parking rates and remove veto powers from BIAs, community associations and ward councillors over proposals to implement paid parking in existing free parking areas.

Under the plan, if staff want to end free parking in an area and install pay machines, they would study the idea and present a recommendation to council for a vote.

Only one BIA executive addressed the committee. Dennis Van Staalduinen said the Wellington West BIA wasn’t asking to keep veto power. Instead, he called for parking revenues to be used in the neighbourhoods that generate them.

Some people want the parking rates to climb each year.

Trevor Haché of the Healthy Transportation Coalition urged councillors to raise parking rates by the same rate as annual transit fare increases and end any free parking at city-owned lots. Transit fares usually go up 2.5 per cent each year.

The city is also reconsidering how it maintains its parking reserve and is proposing to have minimum and maximum balances for the account. Any money above a proposed maximum balance could go to life-cycle maintenance and capital projects, councillors heard.

At the end of 2018, the parking reserve fund had $23.8 million. Over the last three years, the city was contributing about $3.6 million annually to the parking reserve.

Now, the city wants to keep the reserve minimum at $8 million and the maximum at $20 million.

Coun. Stephen Blais, chair of the committee, won support to use excess money in the reserve for road-safety projects until revenue from red-light cameras and eventual photo radar placements are applied to road-safety initiatives.

The excess is projected to be $4 million this year and Blais said road-safety project proposals expected to be released this year could be “very expensive.”

A municipal bike parking strategy is expected to be completed in 2020.

The city looked into changing the governance structure of the parking program, but it’s recommending to maintain the status quo, with parking operating as a program in the municipal government.

Coun. Mathieu Fleury wanted colleagues to consider a not-forprofit agency to run the parking program, with a dividend paid to the city, similar to how the city treats its electrical utility, Hydro Ottawa. The arm’s-length setup could give the city more flexibility to use the revenue, since parking revenue legally needs to be used for parking-related projects. Fleury, however, didn’t get any support from colleagues.

Council will be asked to approve the committee’s recommendations on parking rates next Wednesday.