More on-street parking proposed downtown

Sarnia is offering more downtown parking

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HAS proposal to add 55 on-street spacesup for city council consideration June 3, comes after a city staff review of downtown streets, said engineering and operations general manager David Jackson.

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“Over time, businesses have changed and driveway locations have changed, so we wanted to take a comprehensive look, just to see if we could squeeze more parking in,” he said.

It also comes as the city’s underused Victoria Street lot has been offered conditionally for a county supportive housing project, and other parking changes are proposed with a Ferry Dock hill plans in the worksJackson said.

“Again, those are putting more pressures on the concerns around downtown parking,” he said.

Many of the proposed additions aren’t downtown, but on neighboring side streets and would be all-day instead of two-hour parking, he said.

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Adding more of those spaces would give options and incentives for people who work downtown, or plan to spend a longer time in the area, to park further away and walk in, he said, “and then try to keep the two-hour spaces open for customers and higher turnover.”

Some two-hour spaces in the core would also be squeezed in, closer to intersections and driveways, he said.

“Recognizing generally traffic in the downtown is a bit slower … I think we can have some tighter spacing there,” he said, noting the potential for sight line issues and adding the city could review those spaces and make changes if necessary.

Jackson also noted the city recently updated signs for the lot at George and Front streets that’s used for city staff parking during the day, but open free to the public evenings and weekends.

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A downtown merchant had requested the change to help improve parking availability.

“It always was open on the weekends, but the signage made it look like you weren’t allowed to park there,” Jackson said. “So, we’ve modified the signage to highlight that there is free parking there evenings and weekends.”

Downtown parking tweaks happen from time to time, but comprehensive looks like this hasn’t happened before in his time with the city, Jackson said.

Sarnia doesn’t have an exact count on on-street parking spaces downtown, but estimates are 400 to 500 exist between the waterfront, London Road, Vidal Street and Wellington Street, Jackson said.

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