Residents in Saint John’s south-central peninsula may soon have to fork out more for parking passes.
The city wants to increase the price of residential zone parking permits to $75 per year from the current $60.
It comes as Saint John faces higher costs and more demand for residential parking in that part of the city.
Marc Dionne, the city’s parking services director, said the cost of these permits has not been adjusted in several years.
“A modest adjustment is proposed to better reflect the cost of administering the program,” Dionne told council on Monday night.
Between 1987 and 2004, residential parking permits were set at a rate of $60 for the year.
However, a 2004 study on snow removal and residential parking led to an increase in the number of permits allowed, so the city lowered permit costs to $33.90.
Prices increased to $48 in 2015, $48.85 in 2016, and then to their current rate of $60 in 2019.
The residential parking program currently brings in around $60,000 a year in revenue. The proposed increase would bring that to around $75,000.
There are currently more than 1,200 on-street residential parking spaces in the south-central peninsula, which are broken into six zones.
Coun. Joanna Killen questioned why staff did not consider a lower increase since the program only costs around $65,000 a year to run.
“We’re anticipating further increases for enforcement to come, and then the cost of materials for ticketing, the system that we use, things like that,” said Operations Manager Jill Good.
Meanwhile, Dionne said city staff plan to complete a parking study over the next year, which will include a focus on the south-central peninsula.
He said the recommendations from the study will inform future decisions around parking and pricing.
Council gave its initial approval to the price increase on Monday, but the bylaw amendment still needs to come back for final reading.
If approved, the new residential parking permit fee would take effect on May 1.
