​Council okays three-hour parking limit in downtown Kincardine

Kincardine council has given the green light to a three-hour parking limit on Queen Street in the downtown core.

At the meeting Wednesday night (July 10), council agreed with the proposal to limit parking seven days per week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Queen Street, from Durham Market South to Durham Street, with handicapped-accessible parking to be exempted.

“I don’t expect this will be implemented until after the 2024 tourist season,” said councillor Mike Hinchberger, council’s representative on the Kincardine Business Improvement Area (BIA). “This was supported by the BIA in order to support local business. Three hours is usually enough time for people to do their business downtown.”

Councillor Bill Stewart said the municipality has increased bylaw enforcement for the summer, but how does it plan to enforce this bylaw?

He said there is no problems parking on Queen Street in the winter months; the problem arises in the summer. “Are we going to use our own bylaw officer to enforce it?”

“Could we look at a trial period?” asked deputy mayor Andrea Clarke.

“As Bill (Stewart) says, council makes policy and can change policy,” said Hinchberger. “I expect we will be tweaking this bylaw in the future.”

“There used to be parking meters on Queen Street,” said mayor Kenneth Craig.

“Shouldn’t Sunday be exempted?” asked councillor Jennifer Prenger.

“The BIA discussed it and decided to include Sunday,” said Hinchberger.

Craig said staff will be bringing forward an implementation plan for this parking limit in downtown Kincardine.

This issue was initially discussed at the June 26 meeting when a staff report urged council to proceed with public consultation on the parking limit.

At that meeting, council decided against public consultation and agreed to proceed with a three-hour parking limit in downtown Kincardine.

In that report, staff noted that a parking limit would necessitate increased enforcement, as well as signage in the affected area, increased legal costs to defend tickets for those who wish to fight them, and an education campaign to inform residents and visitors.

The cost of a parking ticket is $50 ($35 voluntary payable within seven days) and these tickets would not offset the cost of enforcement or legal costs, stated the report.

The proposal for a three-hour parking limit is to encourage users who will be there for a long period of time (i.e. tenants, employees, business owners) to utilize the free parking lots or side streets in the downtown area or choose active transportation or carpooling options. This would leave the on-street parking for those utilizing the businesses for a short-term.

This area of Queen Street currently has 82 on-street parking spaces with seven being accessible parking spaces and one limited-mobility space. The parking lots to the east and west of Queen Street can accommodate about 210 vehicles. A parking study of this area of Queen Street has not been completed since 2010, and there is no current analytical data to confirm the average occupancy rate of Queen Street, the side streets or parking lots in the area.

The staff report states that to fully enforce a three-hour parking limit on Queen Street in Kincardine would require a dedicated officer separate from the current enforcement initiatives. The officer would be required to do regular patrols of the area to virtually chalk the tires utilizing the electronic ticketing program Ops-Com. Using this system, the officer would issue tickets for those over the limit and any other parking infractions. The system permits people to pay their infractions on-line.