Calgary residents divided over proposed tweaks to street parking permits
CBC
What's going on with Calgary's residential parking permits? Well, there's a lot to unpack.
Coun. Andre Chabot issued a notice of motion endorsed by nine of his council colleagues, responding to concerns from residents who as of Aug. 1 would have to pay for residential street parking.
The Ward 10 representative suggests not charging residents in single-family homes for their first street parking permit. They would be charged for additional permits.
"I'm only looking at low-density residential and small [multi-family], so single-family, semi-detached row houses … would all qualify," Chabot told the Calgary Eyeopener in an interview Tuesday.
Why just those types of homes? Chabot said it's because accommodating all the cars that exist in a multi-family building on the urban streets would be a challenge and could disincentivize the use of on-site parking.
"I'm looking for fee assistance right now and to help some of those folks that may not have the financial wherewithal to pay to park in front of their homes, whether that be for an hour or two hours or three hours," Chabot said.
These fees have been in the works for years and were approved initially in 2020, during the previous council's term.
The program's original goal was to ensure high-demand parts of town still had parking for residents. That high demand might be caused by the bars on 17th Avenue S.W., a high school parking spillover, a hospital or a transit station.
But it was costing $1.4 million to operate and enforce, so the city outlined changes that would shift to a user-pay model. Current councillors OK'd the new plan with some tweaks and set fees last November.
Costs differ depending on what type of home you live in, where it is located and how many vehicles you want to park on the street.
Here's the breakdown:
Chabot told the Eyeopener he is concentrating on the first permit type in that chart.
But what about everybody else in the RPP program?
Coun. Courtney Walcott's inner-city ward would have a lot of residents who fall into the Market Permit category.