Parking at two Nanaimo school district sites will no longer be free by the end of this month.
The district signed a contract with Robbins Parking to begin charging for parking at a lot on Selby Street and at Serauxmen Stadium. Neither site is attached to a school.
District officials believe the biggest users of the Selby Street lot are Discovery College students and City of Nanaimo employees. Those organizations were informed about the pay parking, said district spokeswoman Donna Reimer.
Pay parking at Selby will be 24 hours a day year-round and will go into effect in the coming weeks.
At Serauxmen, pay parking runs from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays from September to April, when users are believed to be primarily Vancouver Island University students.
There will be no charge on evenings or weekends nor from May to August.
Reimer said the change, which was approved last month by trustees, is to recover revenue from the district’s vacant properties.
“The main idea is to at least cover the costs of maintaining the lots,” she said. “We think that it will definitely be enough to make sure we can maintain the lots and maybe return some revenue to the district.”
