City of Powell River Council will consider amendments to its traffic bylaw to reflect changes in parking fines at city lots.
At the November 19 committee of the whole meeting, councillors considered a recommendation that it refer the city’s traffic amendment bylaw to city council for first three readings.
City chief administrative officer Lisa Bhopalsingh said councillors had a report before them, which aligns the new traffic amendment bylaw with other measures that council has already adopted with the parking bylaw amendment earlier this year.
“Essentially, the report is there for you to make a decision that helps staff align some inconsistencies with voluntary payment wording, which makes it very hard to enforce parking, and also aligning the financial amounts that you approved for the parking bylaw with this bylaw,” said Bhopalsingh.
Councillor George Doubt said he had been receiving correspondence and hearing from people who would like speed limits addressed in other places.
“This is the bylaw where speed limits are addressed,” said Doubt. “It wouldn’t be very hard to change some of those speed limits to reduce speeds on side streets to 40 kilometres an hour or 30 kilometres an hour. We’ve had a lot of people ask us over the years to do that – more people than have asked us to raise the parking fees.”
Bhopalsingh said in coming budget deliberations, there will be a proposal for funding a road network analysis, which will involve a comprehensive look at speed zones, priority areas and how to prioritize upgrades and standards for different roads.
“It's a pretty key thing,” said Bhopalsingh. “This would involve a thorough review of speed limits and other elements. We are aware that there are other bylaws that we need to upgrade related to parking.”
The recommendation was adopted unanimously.
According to a staff report, on October 10, council adopted the parking lot amendment bylaw, increasing parking fines from $20 to $60 and increased early payment, within 14 days, from $15 to $30. The report indicated that the traffic bylaw needed to be amended to reflect the increased fine.
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