With December fast approaching, a group of downtown merchants hope to see free holiday parking reinstated in the city’s core.
Following a petition to reinstate the program by downtown merchant Ellen Wolper, a fellow downtown business owner, Mark Watson, has encouraged businesses to put up signs asking the city to bring back free holiday parking.
The free parking program, which had been in place for years, was revoked last year amid numerous changes to downtown parking and fees.
“When they took it away last December, it was the slowest December we’d had,” said Mark Watson, owner of Pocket Skate & Vintage. “Things slowed down. We didn't have as many people down, and it might even be a better idea to try it through November, as well, because this November has been just terrible.”
Beyond himself and Wolper, Watson said numerous downtown business owners feel the same way.
“Any business owner I've talked to in the last few days, they are like, ‘Yeah, I don't know why they took away the free parking. We'd had it for years. Why get rid of it now?’ he asked. “It all comes down to it being a money decision, right?”
During the 2023 budget deliberations, city council tasked the Downtown Orillia Business Improvement Area (DOBIA) with finding ways to generate an additional $257,000 in parking revenue, and the resulting changes brought increased meter parking fees, increased permit parking fees, and the removal of free holiday parking, among other changes.
In 2022, the last time it was offered, the city’s core had free holiday parking from Nov. 18 to Jan. 3.
Michael Fredson, chair of the DOBIA, said downtown parking would ideally be free — except for the fact that downtown Orillia’s parking lots are often busy, especially through the holiday season.
“In an ideal world, we’d have all kinds of parking available. It's free. Everybody can come whenever. It'd be great,” he said. “We're in a good spot that we're busy downtown, but we're in a bad spot that we don't always have enough parking.”
Charging for parking, Fredson said, helps ensure parking spaces are freed up when people are done shopping.
“Unfortunately, not having enough parking spaces generally means that you have to charge for parking to kind of keep people moving so that more customers can find spots,” he said.
“What happens, especially in December when it's busy … and when it's historically been free in the past, the lots and the spaces fill up a lot with people that aren't actually here to do business," said Fredson.
“Sometimes you have employees, sometimes you have residents, sometimes you have all these people that kind of just (say), ‘Oh, look, parking is free,’ and they just park there.”
Free parking, which was also in place through the COVID-19 pandemic, gave Fredson firsthand experience with the issue.
“I had a contractor van in front of my store for three weeks. You know, that doesn't help me sell books,” said Fredson, who owns Manticore Books. “It doesn't help any businesses sell their products by having somebody that really is not here to shop.”
When the city tasked the DOBIA with reviewing downtown parking, Fredson said they deferred to peer-reviewed research before making any suggestions.
“This isn't an idea from the top of our heads,” he said. “This is a best practices approach from peer-reviewed research.”
Another business owner, who put up a sign in her window calling for free parking to be reinstated, suggested that bylaw enforcement could help ensure residents don’t abuse free parking.
“I know there's some concern that staff use the parking spots, but then I've already talked to … the head of bylaw, too, and they have no problem,” said Patricia Cousineau, owner of The Bird House. “You just chalk tires. Four hours later, they come back … (and) if a car hasn't moved in four hours, they're taking advantage of it, so that's when they would issue a ticket.”
Cousineau also said free parking encourages residents to spend more time exploring downtown.
“Instead of just running in and grabbing one thing at Mariposa, they're now going to venture into the other stores, maybe grab lunch, maybe grab dinner, whatever — it just encourages people to shop,” she said.
“We're competing against the big box stores, Walmart, or anywhere … that offers free parking, and in order to be competitive we have to have the city jump on board and help us out to keep downtown going.”
Fredson said he is not opposed to finding a compromise on the free parking debate, mentioning ideas like earmarking underutilized lots for free holiday parking, but that decision will ultimately fall to city council.
Last week, city council discussed Wolper’s petition to reinstate free holiday parking, but no resolution was brought forward during the meeting.
City council suggested it would be best to get input from the DOBIA before making any decisions on the matter, but Fredson said that process has not begun yet.
In the meantime, Watson said that while the downtown is busy, it’s often in the evening after parking is free, and he also said he has heard from a number of residents who would like to see the free holiday program reinstated, as well.
"As the parking meters went up and the parking for December went away, that's what we hear, like we're standing outside talking to people on the street ... and they're like, 'Wow, that's pretty expensive parking,'" he said. "It always seems to be people from out of town, and it's fine, they'll come from out of town to be here ... but we're not seeing locals come down.
"They just go out to the big box stores or shop online."
Two downtown visitors on Monday told OrilliaMatters they would like to see free parking come back.
“It’s crazy. You spend $3 an hour, (but you can) go to a mall and it’s free,” lamented Jim Wilson.
Bill Humphreys said he liked the program because he could stop by “without having to worry about getting a ticket,” but he did see how free parking could cause issues, as well.
“If someone’s living here and they’re taking advantage of it, they’re taking spots away from potential customers, (so) I guess that could be a problem,” he said.
