Jennifer Dart , Westerly News, December 13, 2007
The signs and meters will be removed but after a marginal vote Monday at Tofino council, the district's pay parking bylaw will remain on the books.
The bylaw, however, is in limbo because it can't be enforced.
At the Dec. 10 meeting council members were split in a 3-3 vote on first
reading of the amendment to the parking bylaw to remove all references
to pay parking (a tie vote means the motion is defeated).
Couns. Kendal Kelly, Owen Strudwick and Michael Tilitzky voted in favour
of eliminating pay parking elements from Tofino's parking bylaw, while
Mayor John Fraser and Couns. Peter Ayres and Al Anderson were against.
Coun. Derek Shaw is currently on a leave of absence.
This vote came after council voted two weeks ago to terminate the program by removing all signage and meters from around town.
Ayres, who was absent from the Nov. 26 meeting when council endorsed Tilitzky's motion to effectively scrap the program in a 3-2 vote, led the charge this week. "I have a hard time getting rid of something that generated revenue," he said, pointing out that money was made even though the program was late and "poorly implemented."
Kelly countered by saying the breakdown of the program was "skewed," because additional costs, for such things as bylaw staff and another vehicle (that would be necessary to continue the program) weren't included.
While Ayres acknowledged the cost of the vandalism against the meters and signage during the trial period, he said the other costs were necessary anyway for parking management.
The mayor clarified bylaw staff were not doing parking enforcement until this bylaw was enacted in June because there were no enforcement clauses before.
He also said the parking meters would be removed regardless of whether the program continues because they have to go back to the company who provided them free of charge for the trial period this summer. If council were to decide in the future to continue with pay parking, they would have to put the contract for meters to tender.
Anderson, who voted against the original move to cease the pay parking program along with Mayor Fraser, was the one to suggest tabling the issue until the parking committee had a chance to review the trial program.
The committee is made up of local residents and business owners.
There was much back and forth discussion as there has been each time this issue is discussed, and at one point the mayor interjected on Tilitzky's comments that the program failed to make the "hundreds of thousands of dollars" it was supposed to.
"I take issue with that," said the mayor, who noted the trial period wasn't anticipated to generate significant revenue. He also said downtown businesses have not suffered in the way they anticipated from the program being in place.
"It's come back to being for or against pay parking," said Coun. Anderson, "I'd like to consider the question in light of the committee's review."
The bylaw amendment did not proceed past first reading. "The bylaw will stay as it's written until it comes through [the committee]," said Fraser.
Earlier in the meeting, council agreed with the suggestion of the Tofino Long Beach Chamber of Commerce to investigate the possibility of hiring a transportation planner to address this and other issues.
The Tofino Business Association made the same suggestion in a written submission to council.
"I think if we're going to continue to increase tourism here, we've
got to look at [a larger transportation strategy]," said Anderson.
—Westerly News, Tofino/Ucluelet
