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Downtown parking limit discussed by council

The two-hour parking limits downtown are staying. Town of Bonnyville council voted in favour of keeping parking restrictions along main street during their meeting on Tuesday, May 14.
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Town of Bonnyville council decided to keep the two-hour parking restrictions in place.

The two-hour parking limits downtown are staying.

Town of Bonnyville council voted in favour of keeping parking restrictions along main street during their meeting on Tuesday, May 14.

The necessity of the time constraints was brought back to the table after a downtown business filed a complaint regarding vehicles parking on 50 Ave. for longer than the two-hour window.

The topic was before the community policing committee, who passed a motion recommending council remove the two-hour parking zones on 50 Ave. However, after discussions at council, the municipality wasn’t in favour of the idea.

”(The policing committee) decided against it simply because of the amount of work that’s going to have to go back into enforcing it,” explained Coun. Chad Colbourne, who sits on the policing committee.

The topic was also brought to the downtown revitalization advisory committee. They had no concerns with parking or the removal of signs along 50 Ave.

Mayor Gene Sobolewski was against the policing committee’s suggestion, instead offering another solution.

”I think maybe what we should look at, is problem areas that we need to focus on first and foremost. I think, wholesale abolition of it, people will be people and if those signs aren’t up, we may be going down the same road from here. Maybe we deal with it on a complaints basis, or see if there are hot spots in town,” he detailed.

According to administration, on main street between 48 St. and 51 St., there are a total of 15 signs; seven are incorrect, eight are misleading, and multiple are crooked. In the summer months, hanging plants often cover a number of them from view.

In order for the two-hour parking restriction to be properly enforced, these issues would need be to corrected by the municipality.

If monitoring whether people were abiding by the time restraints pointed to one car parked in a specific spot repeatedly, a warning was suggested prior to issuing a ticket.

Sobolewski agreed that “may solve the problem” rather than eliminating the two-hour parking limitation altogether.

How the removal of the restriction would impact businesses with their own parking was a concern for Coun. Elisa Brosseau.

”If people get used to, ‘well, I can park for as long as I want on main street, I can park wherever I want to.’ If it’s in a private parking lot, they might not know, it might just be a mindset that people get into,” she noted, adding it could also impact businesses whose customers rely on the limited space on 50 Ave.

After the motion to eliminate the restriction was defeated, CAO Mark Power said administration will address the signage issues on main street.

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