Parking in Hamilton will soon get more expensive

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Published November 20, 2019 at 12:56 am

It looks like it’s going to get more expensive to park in Hamilton in the coming months.

It looks like it’s going to get more expensive to park in Hamilton in the coming months.

At a Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 19), a staff report outlined the potential financial impacts of increasing on-street and off-street parking fees and parking fines.

In 2018, according to the report, the gross revenue for Hamilton Municipal Parking System (HMPS) was approximately $13.8 million, of which approximately $8.3 million is related to parking user charges and $5.5 million is related to parking fines.

The last time on-street parking meter fees were upped was in 2017 when they went from $1 an hour to $1.50 an hour.

In 2018, Hamilton parking meters in Hamilton brought in approximately $2.4 million in gross revenue and the report estimates that a 25 cent increase in hourly meter rates would result in a net increase in revenue of $280,000 per year, after taking into account a potential reduction in demand due to the price increase. A 50 cent increase could add revenues of $560,000.

The HMPS also has 4,400 parking spaces in 61 lots and parking garages. The current rates vary, depending on location but fall within the 75 cents to $2.50. Monthly rates vary from $45 per month to $140 per month.

The report suggests upping fees by $2 per hour on daily maximum rates is estimated to generate approximately $325,000 in annual revenues.

For monthly parking, a potential scenario would be to increase all monthly permits costs by $10 per month, which is forecast to generate a net annual increase in revenue of $306,000 based on 2,550 permits issued.

The fee increase in parking lots can be justified, the report says, as new machines accepting credit cards have been installed in lots where previously only coin payment was available.

Charts accompanying the report showed that Hamilton was well below most Canadian municipalities in parking fees. The average among comparable Canadian municipalities was $2.02, for on-street parking, $2.35 for lots or off-street, and $109.97 for monthly permits.

The report also hints that free parking downtown on the weekends may soon be a thing of the past as there have been requests to revisit the bylaw that was established in 2006.

Hamilton is within the typical range of other municipalities for parking fines and the report recommends for the 2020 budget process to apply an average increase of $1. It’s estimated that the revenue impact with this change could fall around $161,000.

Councillors on the committee were pretty supportive of the potential revenue increases the report hinted at, and some were even suggesting that fines in some areas, particularly school zones with no-stopping signage, needed heftier fines and enforcement.

In the meantime, the city’s Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) will be given the opportunity to provide feedback. Councillor Brad Clark suggested that if schools zones will see any kind of change in penalties, that perhaps the school boards, who have been vocal in their concern for safety in their neighbourhoods, be consulted.

The HMPS commenced a comprehensive City-wide Parking Master Plan (PMP) within the last couple of months. The PMP, the report says, will provide direction for a co-ordinated, strategic approach to parking policy, planning, financial sustainability and enforcement that will align with other city¬wide policies related to transportation and land use planning.

Photo courtesy Daiju Azuma via Flickr.

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