Edmonton backtracks on scrapping residential parking permit zones

“We heard from communities as well that they want to keep the things the way are, and I am glad that we are putting a pause on it.”

City council unanimously voted Wednesday to put a stop to it so it can hear from the public and make tweaks to the plan using feedback. The city began this spring phasing out or making changes to 19 residential parking permit zones that had, up until that point, reserved free on-street parking for people who lived in that neighbourhood. Moving to digital and paid parking permits is also on pause. Council’s urban planning committee will take another look at the issue early next year.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he wasn’t in favour of getting rid of the residential permits to begin with: “We heard from communities as well that they want to keep the things the way are, and I am glad that we are putting a pause on it.”

This, he said, will allow the city to “have further engagement with communities to understand what are the specific concerns that they were raising and to do that in thoughtful, meaningful way, with the community input, instead of imposing these changes onto community that there is no desire to have that implemented.”

“What this will give us is a little bit more flexibility and ability to engage.”

Restricted parking signs started coming down for 15 zones in May. The existing zones around Commonwealth Stadium, in Garneau, around NAIT, and in Windsor Park, would have stayed, but boundaries would be smaller. However, residents would have needed to pay $10 a month for permits starting in September, and $120 a year starting in 2025.

Drivers who have existing, expired residential parking permits are asked to keep them displayed, for now.

Coun. Anne Stevenson, who was in favour initially, ultimately pitched the reversal. The Ward O-day’min councillor, at council’s urban planning committee on June 18, said she’s heard public feedback that it needs to be changed.

“As it’s been rolled out, community members have flagged a number of important local, contextual pieces that I think need a further look,” she said at the time. “As the team has been collecting that feedback, communities have been a good job of articulating their concerns and the solutions that they see.”

With her motion passing Wednesday, city administration is tasked with gathering public feedback and recommending what changes there should be to fees, enforcement, zone boundaries, and hours from what had been planned.

“I know in communities that I represent, it was causing a lot of concern. While I can understand the overall direction that administration is looking to go, I think we need to take a bit more of a nuanced and thoughtful approach, instead of a blanket approach,” she told Postmedia.

“I think we need to take that time. We need to engage more with Edmontonians and hear their feedback around what works and what doesn’t.”


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