SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Downtown Summerside Inc. wants the amount of time drivers are allowed to park on Water Street reduced from two hours to one.
The suggestion is one of several the downtown merchants’ organization made to city council recently in an effort to spark a new approach to parking in the city’s core.
It is long past time to not only have that conversation but to take action, said Robert Gallant, president of Downtown Summerside Inc.
To demonstrate his point, Gallant pointed to a report on downtown parking completed for the city in 2005. It showed discontent with the parking situation at that time.
And there’s no reason to believe it has improved, said Gallant.
Downtown Summerside is proposing the city do a trial run of their suggestions and just see how it goes.
“This is a trial. This is not set in stone. This is to try something to see if we can get the parking to move a little bit quicker,” said Gallant. “We’ve got to try something.”
The organization is proposing that by reducing the parking time on Water Street to one hour, the convenient, close-to-storefront spots will be used only by in-and-out shoppers. There is currently a problem with some people using those short-term spaces to park several hours or even the whole workday.
As a trade-off, the organization would like to see side streets beyond First Street opened for all-day public parking.
It is also proposing better signage be installed to direct drivers towards all-day parking, as those spaces that are currently available are not readily apparent.
With more than 300 people working in the Holman Building alone, plus new nearby residential developments proposed for construction, something should be done now or this will become a bigger problem down the road, said Lydia Potter, executive director of Downtown Summerside.
“It is becoming a challenge,” said Potter. “It seems like it has just encroached on us as we grow and as we get more staff downtown there’s nowhere to go.”
City councillors voiced no major concerns with the organization’s proposals, though there were questions about enforcement, what more could be done to get all-day parkers off Water Street and how best to implement the requests.
“Let’s set something in motion here, so we’re not here in July and August talking about this great plan we have,” said Mayor Basil Stewart.
Downtown Summerside would like to see the city move on its Water Street parking suggestion as a first step, then deal with the signage and changes to the side streets as further steps after that.
Council committed to moving a motion on step one later this month.
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Colin Maclean/Journal Pioneer
Lydia Potter, executive director, and Robert Gallant, president, of Downtown Summerside Inc. present to Summerside city council about their proposal to limit parking along Water Street to one hour.
