City could begin removing parking meters

Parking meters may soon go missing from city streets after Fort St. John City Council passed a motion to look into their removal.

Mayor Bruce Lantz brought forward a motion at Tuesday’s meeting to have city staff draft a report on the practicability of removing parking meters from the downtown core for six months.

The motion was then amended to include all parking meters in the city after Councillor Larry Evans said there would be no point to keeping the additional two blocks of parking meters if the ones in the core were being removed.

Lantz said he understands there would be a loss of revenue for the City from the parking meters, but that there are other considerations for removing them that should also be taken into account.

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Lantz said there are other ways the City can generate revenue from parking infractions, including issuing fines to drivers who park for longer than two hours in certain areas.

He also stressed that if the meters are removed it would only be a pilot project and if parking spaces are misused, the meters can be reinstalled.

The current fine for a parking meter violation is $10 and does not increase even if it is not paid within a certain amount of time.

Lantz said the most recent figures he has show that the City receives approximately $100,000, of which approximately $52,000 goes towards associated costs, including by-law enforcement officers’ salaries. Thus, the City makes approximately $48,000 a year from parking meter infractions.

Although there is no indication as to when the meters would be removed, last month, more than 50 parking meters were damaged by vandals and have not yet been replaced.