A survey conducted by the Midland business improvement area (BIA) members shows that close to a majority of the merchants and their employees would pay between $25 and $30 for a quarterly parking permit.
Scott Campbell, co-owner of Grounded Coffee Company, presented the results of the survey to council at its meeting earlier this month.
"A large portion of downtown employees are making slightly above minimum wage, working 25 - 30 hours a week (pre-pandemic)," he said, sharing a bit about the demographics of business owners and their employees. "We're seeing increased traffic away from our retailers, towards Highway 12 and 93 as more big box stores establish themselves on the highway commercials zones of Midland."
In addition, Campbell said, downtown businesses are also facing the pressures from lost jobs, decreased operating hours, lower tourism numbers and less local foot traffic due to COVID-19.
"The King Street reconstruction project has, combined with COVID-19, pushed people away from the downtown core," he said.
And as the town recovers from both COVID-19 and the Big Dig, Campbell added, "We're hoping for some overwhelming good news that the town and its BIA are working together to offer an emotional win and good news stories."
The survey (conducted before the pandemic) was sent out to all 120 of the BIA members and 45% answered the open-ended questions in it.
"These are people who live and work in the downtown, not a consultant who studies parking scenarios around the province but does not live in Midland," said Campbell.
He said merchants that answered the survey said they would need a total of 90 parking spots in the downtown area, with some businesses requiring as many as 18 spots alone for their employees and others requiring none.
Campbell also noted that the survey showed that currently only 16 downtown employees have purchased parking passes.
The survey indicated, he said, that on average, employees said they would be willing to pay an average of $30 per quarter, while merchants would pay an average of $24 to buy parking passes for their employees.
According to Kelly Lacroix, municipal law enforcement officer, there are currently 160 permits available in Midland's nine downtown municipal parking lots.
"We also have on-street permit parking located on First Street and Midland Avenue (between Hugel Avenue and Yonge Street), providing 76 permit parking spaces," she wrote in an email. "A majority of our permit parking, which is located south of Dominion Avenue, with the exception of the lot in front of Tim Hortons on Dominion Avenue, permit parking is $31.80/month, $431.21/year.
"Our parking lots located north of Dominion Avenue, as well as our on-street permit parking is $26.35/month, $357.33/year," added Lacroix. "The parking lot located at Midland Avenue and Bayshore Drive, which is away from the downtown is $10.60/month, $143.74/year."
Permits are sold on a yearly basis, not per month, she said.
"During this ongoing (parking) conversation," Campbell said, "I have met with some resistance to offer too many passes in certain lots, citing potential lack of customer parking or people abusing spots closer to businesses. Clogging up spots close to businesses is already happening with the three-hour shuffle because 77% of employees are not following any protocols as to where they should currently park."
The solution, he said, is to delineate where the lots/quarterly/yearly parking passes are acceptable.
"Along or close to First Street in the lot next to it," said Campbell. "It frees up the spots that are closer to the business. It limits the abuse of employees parking in prime spots closer to the business. On the First Street lot alone, doing this would offer 41 potential acceptable permit spots and leave 69 spots that are a no-go zones for people with permits."
Deputy Mayor Mike Ross asked if any of the employees park on Queen Street where there are no meters.
"Are the businesses taking advantage of free parking a block away?" he said.
Ross also put out a general question around coming up with a tiered pricing for the permit passes.
"If you want to park on Midland Avenue or First Street, maybe it is only $20 but if you want to park next to your store, it might be a bit more," he said.
Campbell said he had not heard about employees parking on Queen Street or using other free street parking spots through the survey.
"One thing I want you to consider is the safety of the employees as well," he added. "I don't want somebody at the end of their shift who had to pay $10 to get a discounted parking permit to have to walk all the way back to Queen Street at 11 o'clock at night when there's a lit parking lot with less cars."
Coun. Jon Main said it's really important to get the price right on this situation.
"The permit idea makes sense to really push that and find a price that's affordable for the residents, staff and volunteers in the community," he said. "On street and off street parking should be a different rate, they're different usages. Getting the price is right, because we have to pay for the cost of maintenance and upkeep and bylaw enforcement.
"The other thing is to reinvest any of the surplus from the parking revenue into the downtown," Main added. "Then I think people wouldn't mind paying for parking because they know funds are going back to downtown initiatives."
Coun. Bill Gordon said with the new parking system of licence-plate based pay and display soon coming into effect, the three-hour shuffle should effectively be eliminated.
"The gamesmanship of the three-hour shuffle it ain't happenin' anymore with the new system," he said. "The nice thing about (a permit) is it doesn't require us to paint a spot and say they're permit-only spots. If you have a permit, then you can park wherever you want and when the enforcement person comes by and looks in your window and sees the permit."
Gordon said he would like staff to take a look at what other similarly sized municipalities were doing about their downtown parking situation.
"Normally you have to pay if you park in a downtown," he said. "It's really about making sure there's space for visitors."
Campbell said it would depend on how the employees and merchants are educated about which spots in lots or on the streets are dedicated for them.
CAO David Denault said the staff is in touch with Campbell and has received the results of the survey.
"We feel there's a really strong relationship with the BIA," said Denault. "We felt it was really important he bring the deputation to council to share this information. We will look at what other communities our size do. We will come up with something that can work."
