Kitchener council temporarily reverting parking fees at lot downtown

A motion was passed Monday evening that paved over an increase to parking fees at the Bramm Street Yards lot in downtown Kitchener.

Councillors listened to feedback from the community and decided to temporarily reduce fees back to what they previously were, before they hiked up the rates for the lot on Feb. 12 this year.

The lot will revert to a Monday to Saturday structure with free parking after 5 p.m. and all-day Sundays.

The change will be made until a review can be completed by city staff regarding the city’s parking enterprises and how functional it is.

“We’ve agreed that if we took the parking fees back to where they were pre-January 2024 that that should satisfy the expectations of those residents because when they moved into those units that’s what those fees would have been,” said Coun. Debbie Chapman who pushed forward the motion.

The motion made Kitchener’s parking rate structure part of the 2025 budget after it is reviewed this year. The motion was supported by city staff, it called for fair market value for parking, the financial viability of the city’s parking enterprise and efficient use of taxpayer funds that would support economic development goals.

During the meeting, Coun. Scott Davey said the city’s parking is in a $1.6 million deficit.

Along with city staff, Kitchener’s mayor, Berry Vrbanovic, supported the motion Apr. 8.

“I think we are due for a review because a lot of things are changing both in the downtown and in the area of Grand River hospital as well, which is the majority of where we have our parking enterprise at present,” said Vrbanovic.

“The city can’t be in the long run, in my view, in the business of providing parking for the condos and the residences getting built.”

Vrbanovic said the city will have to look into parking and policies as part of the review.

“In the meantime, going back to this makes some sense until that work is done.”

According to the 2024 budget summary, Kitchener’s parking enterprise consists of five parking garages, 14 surface lots, on-street meters and free parking spaces, which totals about 3,625 parking spaces.

In that budget, it mentions that parking revenues for the city are down compared with pre-pandemic levels by about 20 per cent.