LETTER – Angle parking, other measures should be considered for downtown

On June 1, 2026 the City of Kamloops brought in new parking rates and fines for the City. Among the changes is an increase in the parking rate from $1.25 per hour to $1.50 per hour for the first two hours. In addition, increases for daily, event and monthly parking rates came into effect.  Rates for expired time doubled from $40 to $80; with the rate going from $10 if paid within 24 hours to $40, a fourfold increase.

One of the key purposes of the changes to parking downtown was to encourage the availability of parking spaces for customers visiting downtown businesses.   The City wants people to be able to use downtown parking to access downtown businesses and discourage people from parking on the street all day. To support these goals, the City also expanded the hours parking rates are applied and made modest changes to enforcement.

With new residential and commercial development downtown, we are seeing increasing pressure on downtown parking in general. It appears that parking continues to remain constrained in the key corridor of Victoria Street. To support business vibrancy in the downtown, and now that the parking changes have been in place for three months, it is important to conduct an assessment to see if the recent changes have achieved the desired impact on parking behaviour.

As part of a three-month parking assessment, the City should review the impacts of the rate of use its new penalties have on parking behaviour. Does the significant increase in parking fines change visitations by seniors or those on fixed incomes or have lower incomes to downtown. What about care providers visiting clients in the downtown core? Are parking fines that are slightly lower than Vancouver but higher than Surrey, appropriate for Kamloops?

Research shows that high parking fines create a psychological and financial barrier that deters lower income individuals from visiting downtown centres. Those that developed the fine structure would have  been making in excess of $100,000 per year and may not have considered the implications for those lower income earners.

Besides the review of fee structure and enforcement review, any assessment should also consider other parking supply policies that can further address parking balance in the downtown core, many of which would be relatively low cost and could be implemented immediately, specifically:

• Reducing parking to two hours maximum in the downtown. Parking was originally set to accommodate specific businesses that may no longer require the three-hour visitations.
• Exploring expanded partnerships with private parking lot holders like BCLC, who could perhaps accommodate further City staff parking and freeing up Riverside Park parking.
• Investigating changing loading zone no parking zones to set business hours, allowing for this back street parking to become available for evening use (like Blazers Games).
• Considering angle parking as a pilot on the 200 Block of Victoria Street to see if the additional parking stalls afforded by angle parking stimulates increased business activity. Angled parking typically creates between 30 to 60% more parking stalls compared to parallel parking for the same length of curb space.

At the end of the day, it is important to remember the goal of parking rates and parking supply is to maintain the overall vibrancy of our downtown area. Like any strategy with clear goals, periodic reviews and strategy refinement are critical to ensuring that the desired outcomes are being achieved. In the case of downtown parking, revisiting the outcomes of the changes is an important step in delivering on the parking plan.

Sincerely,

RANDY SUNDERMAN
Pivot Kamloops candidate for council

EDITOR’S NOTE: ArmchairMayor.ca welcomes comments from candidates on specific issues.