Both visitors and residents of the downtown will see an increase in their parking fees starting May 1, 2017.
The City of Victoria has implemented an increase to the hourly fee starting after the fourth hour of parking from $2 to $3 in all city parkades. The first hour will remain free, and the second and third hour will continue to be the same rate of $2 per hour. Rates will continue to be billed in 15-minute increments.
Residents and daily commuters to the downtown area will also see a jump of around $25-$40 more for monthly parking spaces than they’re used to. The parkade with the biggest monthly increase is Yates Street and Broughton Street, with rates increasing from $160 to $200, and Centennial Square increasing from $110 from $150. This is the first increase in monthly parking fees since 2007.
These price jumps come after two years of consultation between the city and business owners within the downtown core in order to free up space during the peak hours.
With the fee increases, the City will also see improvements to all parkades, including LED parking space counters for the Centennial Square, Johnson Street, and Broughton Street Parkades. Two aging elevators at the View Street Parkade will also be replaced over the course of the summer.
In addition, the City plans to implement a new payment system that will allow parkade users to ‘Tap and Go’ with their credit card to speed up transactions at the gate, though the timeline for these changes is to be determined.
Currently, there are over 11,000 parking spaces, including privately owned lots, in the downtown area for users to park. In the future, the City also plans to make room for approximately 100 street parking spaces available for all-day use and will continue to address the transportation and parking issues in the downtown area throughout 2017.
By: Kaitlyn Kokoska / Contributing Writer
