City council has given the green light to create 22 new paid parking spaces and three new accessible spaces in downtown Orillia, including 17 on-street parallel parking spots along Colborne Street East.
City politicians made the decision to increase downtown parking at Tuesday’s council meeting, with city staff presenting several options for council’s consideration in a staff report.
Beyond the paid parking spaces planned for Colborne Street East, the additional new spaces are as follows:
- One additional on-street parking space along Peter Street North;
- Three additional on-street parking spaces on Matchedash Street North and South;
- One additional on-street parking space on Andrew Street North;
- Accessible, on-street spaces on both Matchedash Street North, Colborne Street East, and converting two spaces in Municipal Lot 2 into a single accessible parking space
Aside from the accessible spaces, which are free of charge with a valid accessible parking permit, the cost for parking in the new spaces will be $1.75 per hour.
In preparing options for council’s consideration, city staff recommended a $3 per hour charge for the new spaces along Colborne Street East, but a majority of council supported implementing the reduced rate.
Coun. Tim Lauer said bringing parking to the four-lane section of Colborne Street makes sense, especially with extensive downtown renovations on the horizon.
“There's all kinds of reasons to consider parking on Colborne. There will be traffic slowing, there's no doubt about it — that is a desirable thing in the downtown area,” he said. “Also coming is a complete renovation of the downtown, and when that happens Colborne is going to have to be the go-to street.”
Lauer also suggested making the spots along Colborne Street East free for a period of time, but the idea did not gain enough traction at the council table.
City staff recommended installing parking meters for each of the new spaces, but Coun. David Campbell suggested exclusively utilizing the Passport parking app.
“I would suggest that those spots only be used with the app … rather than us purchasing meters and installing them, in case we decide to make modifications to those spaces,” he said.
Though Coun. Jay Fallis said the older population may not use the parking app, council passed an amendment directing city staff to implement the Passport parking app for the spaces planned along Colborne Street East.
Staff also recommended changing the free five-minute parking spaces in front of the Canada Post building to paid parking spaces, noting a decline in use of physical postal services, but council shot the idea down.
“People drop off parcels and they're only there for two or three minutes,” said Coun. Ralph Cipolla. “I would strongly suggest that we leave that alone.”
Council’s decision Monday adds to the city’s complement of 1,152 paid parking spaces, across 12 municipal parking lots, on- and off-street parking spaces, and daytime and overnight permit parking spaces.
The other options presented to council included maintaining the status quo, city staff’s recommendation to add 14 additional on-street parking spaces, and exploring the possibility of converting Matchedash Street North and South to one-way traffic between Coldwater and Colborne with a focus on creating angled parking spaces along the street.
City staff’s recommended motion included creating just five additional on-street parking spaces along Colborne Street East, as “the addition of on-street parking along Colborne Street West has the risk of increasing traffic backups,” the report stated.
