Parking throughout the Qualicum Beach commercial area will be restricted to two hours with the new restrictions being implemented in the next year.
Council directed staff to apply a two-hour parking limit throughout the uptown area. The new restrictions in the uptown area would be bordered by Memorial Avenue in the east, Jones Street to the west First Avenue to the north and Fern Road to the south.
Town CAO Daniel Sailland said he expected the parking restrictions to be rolled out in mid- to late-2019, adding that staff needed to consider enforcement and the current construction in the uptown area.
According to a report from planning director Luke Sale, the town has received a number of complaints over the recent lack of available parking spaces along Harlech Road and First Avenue West between Memorial Avenue and Primrose Street. Then at the July 16 meeting, staff directed council to report back to council regarding a two-hour parking limit in the uptown area.
Sales told council at the Aug. 20 regular council meeting that construction in the uptown area has affected parking, but that’s a short-term issue.
Referring to a parking-management study the town had completed about a decade ago, Sales said the consultant’s report at the time said Qualicum Beach doesn’t have a parking shortage, but a parking management issue.
Since then, Sales said, parking had been added around the bus garage. He added that people who had been parking more around the outskirts of town began parking by the bus garage because it’s “so convenient.”
The town already has parking restrictions in some places throughout the uptown, but Sales said staff was recommending the restrictions be consistent throughout.
Coun. Neil Horner said that while the parking restrictions are a “great idea,” he asked whether the town has the enforcement capabilities.
Sales said right now, the answer would be no. He added that looking toward next year, staff is hoping to get a seasonal bylaw officer.
“So we could actually have someone proactively dealing with these parking issues,” Sales said.
Coun. Bill Luchtmeijer said voluntary compliance “is probably the best way” to fix the parking problem, adding that it could be reinforced “every now and then by a little nudge to make sure it remains voluntary.”
Sailland said outside of peak periods, there could be variable enforcement.
“The intent would not be to have somebody walking on a daily basis between the hours of 9 a.m. an 6 p.m., but rather to have variable schedules where at different times in the week, the bylaw officer does go out and hit those various periods, so that there’s a random impact.”
Coun. Anne Skipsey asked if there would be enough long-term parking for employees throughout the town and for those who plan to be in the town longer than two hours.
“I would hate then for people just to park in adjacent residential areas and then have issues there where we have to start putting restrictions in the residential areas and enforcement in those areas as well,” Skipsey said.
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