NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
Parking rates at city owned lots could increase by two per cent in 2019, according to a staff proposal made public last week. Administrators say that about 80 of the 97 stalls at the Transit Parkade are currently reserved for those who pay a monthly fee of between $50 and $66.
Medicine Hat News
City-owned parking spaces downtown are well-used, and to keep them that way, administrators are proposing only limited price increases over the next four years, a committee heard last week.
An annual update of parking fees for the transit parkade, Esplanade and surface lots in the city centre, proposes only cost increased of two per cent, generally in line with general inflation.
That includes prices city hall employees pay for underground heated parking at the building’s parkade off River Road, that members of the development and infrastructure committee heard is charged at the same rate as other heated spaces open to the public.
That, however, might not be enough, said committee member, Coun. Jamie McIntosh.
“(A charge of) $750 for underground heated parking for a year is nothing,” he said
“That space should be at a premium.”
Administrators have said that parking at city hall frees up spots throughout the downtown, where a public perception is there is not enough parking to begin with.
No charge spaces are also available for those doing business in the building, said Chief administrator Merete Heggelund.
She said the rates throughout the core, don’t recover the costs of maintaining the spaces, but it’s better to have high use, than empty spaces collecting no income.
“Full utilization is the goal, we’d rather have them full-up,” she said.
“The price is what the market can bear.”
According to a staff recommendation, a yearly pass to park at the transit terminal covered parking with a plug-in or at the Esplanade’s underground heated would increase $14 to $740 per year in 2019. That would gradually rise to $785 per year in 2022, equal to $72 per month.
Surface day time parking at the Esplanade, on off-street lots, the uncovered top floor of the parkade increased to $544 annually next year, then to $588 over the following four years.
No changes are proposed this year for metered rates at the Medicine Hat Regional Airport or on street meters around the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
All told the cost of maintaining lots in 2017 was $27,100 more than revenue at the five sites, though four of which made a slight profit.
The difference is the high cost of maintenance at the Transit Parkade, though losses there narrowed from $79,750 in 2016 to $57,900 last year.
