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Honour System for Downtown parking

With no parking enforcement in the downtown core since Covid, and the parking meters on 100 Street removed during the upgrades, the City of Fort St. John has several options for managing downtown parking in the future.

“We want people to feel welcome in our downtown community, but we also want to make sure the businesses can get those people through their doors as well,” said Mayor Lilia Hansen.

In a presentation to the Committee of the Whole on July 8, representatives of the Planning and Engineering Department discussed the options for parking in the city’s downtown core.

Due to the nature of downtown Fort St. John, there are limited parking options for some businesses, both for staff and patrons. In fact, council heard that most common complaints about downtown parking are the shortage of parking near businesses and others using their parking lots.

Following a survey of downtown businesses, the city learned that most customers spent less than two hours at their businesses, generally between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The goal of the report presented to council was to find ways for businesses with limited parking available to benefit by making sure the parking spots aren’t occupied for long periods. Limiting the length of time vehicles can be parked in those spots would increase availability and access for people throughout the downtown area, by freeing up those spots downtown to provide adequate parking for customers, while also allowing people time to complete their business.

“Parking is free, as long as you don’t stay all day.”

Councillor Gord Klassen noted that city spent a lot of money on wider sidewalks as part of the 100 Street project, “part of our overall grand scheme for downtown was to make it more walkable, so again we’ve got wider sidewalks, it’s safer, I think we need to continue to message that, that they’re made to walk, you can be safe and you can enjoy a stroll past stores,” he said.

Various options, including reinstalling parking meters, installing digital kiosks or putting up signs, were discussed with the Bylaw Department. It was found that signage was the safest and most cost-effective option, as there is no money to be collected by staff and signs are economical and easy to maintain. In addition, the lack of parking meters downtown has made snow removal much easier for the Public Works Department.

“I think you’re on to something with the signage,” said Councillor Trevor Bolin who added that the city first looked at getting rid of the parking meters in 2009.

“We took those out so people could park, get out, walk around and enjoy the downtown. Let’s focus on that, and stay away from the heavy-handed approach, which is why we got rid of the meters in the first place,” Bolin said.

Klassen asked if businesses which have parking lot space available during the day, such as the three downtown churches “that don’t typically have people using their parking lots except on Sunday mornings,” would be available for parking.

Councillor Jim Lequiere asked if anyone had looked at creating a parking lot downtown, which Engineering Technologist Robert McGuire said is being considered as part of the larger parking strategy.

As to the enforcement of what amounts to an honour system for parking, given the absence of meters, McGuire said that the Bylaw Department “can chalk the tires, physically or electronically if they update their systems, and once they are there for 2 hours, then it would be a parking ticket, similar to what you would have with a parking meter.”

“Parking is free, as long as you don’t stay all day.”

Bolin said that the cost of upgrading to license plate scanning is too high, but that he for one, doesn’t mind if his tires are chalked. “I think it’s more of an awareness, a respect for the businesses downtown, and for the owners of said businesses to ensure their staff are following the rules. If going for enforcement might as well bring back meters.”

I think we’re also evolving as a community and walking a block to a store that you’re going to may become more of a norm for people.”

Councillor Gord Klassen

Samuel Loran, Planner II with the city, said that Bylaw “wanted to avoid having to manually chalk tires as that’s very labour intensive.”

The report recommended that based on the survey results and department consultation, the city opt for signed parking with a two-hour limit between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

“I think 8 to 5 too short, we’re trying to entice more retail, more restaurants with extended hours into the downtown, I we should be at an 8 to 8 sort of idea. I like it, I think it relies on people being good neighbours, good citizens and ensuring that they uphold that,” said Bolin.

Klassen added that they’re trying to develop the downtown into more of an active area.

“In our town, walking is sort of a new thing, so as important as it is to have that parking, I think we’re also evolving as a community and walking a block to a store that you’re going to may become more of a norm for people,” Klassen said.

Council voted to establish two-hour signed parking in the downtown core, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday.

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Council to establish Homelessness Committee

In an effort to have the information to answer the public’s questions, Councillor Trevor Bolin brought forward a Notice of Motion that he is seeking support from council to form a Housing and Homelessness Committee with fellow Councillor Sarah MacDougall at the next council meeting on July 22.

The basis behind the committee, Bolin said, is to be able to work with local providers to be able to reach out and work with the Ministry of Housing to find out what is allowable and what is not allowable.

There is a lot of concern, fear and anger in community, he said, which needs to be addressed.

“We need numbers, we need information. We don’t have that.”

Councillor Trevor Bolin

“We already have staff tasked with so many obligations, I think it’s a good time for us to be able to, as a council, have a two-person committee, that could go to three or four or whatever, something that can get us the information that we need so we can answer the public as a united body,” said Bolin.

“There’s seven of us trying to answer how we can best make this work, I feel we need a single streamlined committee that can be in the know, just like the rest of the committees we sit on. I think it needs to be specific to the problems we’re dealing with in our community.”

Mayor Lilia Hansen agreed, noting that although housing and homelessness isn’t part of council’s mandate, residents want to know where these people are coming from, what they can do, and what the answers are.

Bolin is concerned that the province is hoping that if the community is inundated enough, we’ll just take care of it ourselves.

“I truly feel that’s what the province is doing at this point in time, which is unfair to the taxpayer because now they’re going to be paying double the taxes for the issue at hand,” he said.

At the end of the day, Bolin said that when he made the recommendation to prevent soft-sided camping downtown and caught quite a bit of flack from the Human Rights Commissioner and other groups in the Lower Mainland, he was told by the Province that the city had to offer a solution.

“Well, what is that solution? Where could it go? What could we do with it? We need to be able to do that,” he said.

That’s what the committee would so, Bolin said. It would enable council to gather information from stakeholders like the Salvation Army, Community Bridge and the Ministry to find solutions.

“We need numbers, we need information. We don’t have that.”

“I really feel that us having the knowledge, will enable us to help the solution. It can’t get worse by at least trying to come up with some solutions that we as a council and a community can work towards,” he said.

Bolin envisions the committee working with the Situation Table.

Chief Administrative Officer Milo MacDonald said that work on the Situation Table is ongoing, with engagement with the community and non-profits having been conducted, and the city has obtained a grant from the Province. They plan to move forward with the required training for non-profits in the fall.