EDITORIAL – If paid parking is forced on Tranquille corridor, it should get the benefit

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

PAID PARKING on the Tranquille corridor retail strip isn’t something that’s going to get anyone in civic politics votes. In fact, it might well do just the opposite.

Yet. Kamloops City council is talking about it.

It’s about time. The North Shore Business Improvement Association broached the idea two and a half years ago and council is just now catching up. In fact, though, the issue has been debated for many years.

If you subscribe to the long-promoted notion that the logic of paid parking is to keep drivers from hogging spaces in busy areas, there’s no need for it on Tranquille. It does not have anything like the parking problems of downtown.

But if we abandon the keep-it-moving rationale, there are other benefits. The NCBIA looks at it as a way to create more presence by CSOs in the area, which would help with some of the street issues there.

That may be true, though forcing people to pay for parking where space isn’t an issue is a backwards way of doing it. If more CSOs are needed, put them there and never mind parking.

There are a couple of other questions that need to be answered. City council has been hellbent on creating more housing the past couple of years and has latched onto the idea of reducing parking requirements on new apartment buildings, dipping its toe into the concept with a development on Tranquille Road.

That’s likely the wrong place to be trying it out, since it will probably mean an increase in vehicles on the street, both on Tranquille and on side streets.

But there’s also the question of what happens to revenues if shoppers suddenly have to start paying for the privilege of parking on the Tranquille corridor. Will it simply go into City coffers for spending on whatever council deems worthy anywhere in the city?

More than 10 years ago, when the North Shore was being considered as a place for a performing arts centre, I proposed that fees for paid parking on the corridor could be put towards a PAC. It seems fair that if people are now going to be hit with parking fees there, the revenues should be directed into the North Shore. Even though the PAC, if and when approved, will go to the South Shore instead, the North should receive the benefit of Tranquille corridor parking fees, maybe for improvements in that specific zone.

Bottom line is, levying parking fees on the Tranquille corridor would put it on a level footing with the downtown shopping area, but the North should reap some gain. That, at least, would lessen the pain.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.