Pay to park in front of your home

[speedog]

Pay to park in front of your home - the CoC is pondering this and it already is in place in other cities in Canada. Link to Calgary Sun story.

When they charge you to park in front of your house ... don’t say you weren't warned
Michael Platt

They've got you coming and going — and now Calgary is musing over a user fee for just staying put.

How steep a fee? In Ottawa, homeowners currently pay $648 a year for the right to park in front of their homes.

In Toronto, a residential permit costs $86 for six months of parking, while Vancouver charges an annual fee between $36.70 and $73.40, depending on where you live and how much demand there is for a place at the curb.

How much will it be in Calgary, if approved by city council? Well, that’s partially up to you.

In what it described as a fact-finding survey only — “there’s nothing in the pipeline” — the Calgary Parking Authority has quietly started asking Calgarians how much they’d be willing to pay to park outside their homes.

As the Sun first reported last month, the question comes near the end of a residential parking survey found on calgaryparking.com, which opens with innocuous questions about applying for permits online, and whether permits help restrict non-resident vehicles.

But suddenly, question No. 8 asks you to put a monetary value on the asphalt outside your front door.

“Currently, the Residential Parking Permit program costs the CPA $1M each year to administer. In other Canadian municipalities, there is a fee for Residential Parking Permits. This ranges from $12 to $635 per year,” it reads.

“How much do you think the street space in front of your home is worth per year?”

Calgarians are then asked to tick a box, ranging from $10 to $25 a year, all the way up to “More than $101 a year.”

That’s some very specific detail for a question with no specific purpose, but Calgary Parking Authority boss Troy McLeod is adamant his department has no plans to start charging for the right to park outside your own home.

“We’re not putting it in our budget as a request at all, so no, we’re not looking for a new fee,” said McLeod, general manager of the CPA.

“The cost of the program is a million dollars a year for us to operate, but we are not seeking any new funding.”
So, the Calgary Parking Authority doesn't want to charge you for parking at home — got it.

But the reality is, this isn't the Calgary Parking Authority’s decision.

That responsibility lies with the 15 politicians who sit on city council.

Yes, the same crew in charge of your property taxes, user fees and utility payments, and the same group already collecting $27 million a year from the highly-lucrative parking authority as general revenue.

More ominously still, McLeod said the answer to question No. 8 is to be provided to the city’s Transportation Department, as part of a comprehensive city council review of the residential parking permit system.

Council asks, and chances are, they’ll expect to receive.
Given a city council that’s never seen a potential source of cash it didn’t like, it’s a pretty safe bet that Calgarians currently living in communities with residential parking restrictions will soon be paying for the same pass that’s currently free.

Given close to 75 separate residential parking zones in Calgary, containing thousands of homes, the parking crunch in crowded communities is an obvious coffer-filling opportunity for council.

“It’s a council decision — the policy is just something we help implement, and the zone is established by council,” said McLeod.

The communities with parking permit zones tend to be inner city, or those around busy retail areas or transit hubs: pretty much any neighbourhood where parking space is at a premium, due to demand.

But what was once a service offered gratis to ensure space was reserved for people living there will soon have a price tag attached, all thanks to the Calgary Parking Authority survey, which closes June 30.

“We know the city is undertaking a residential policy review, and so we wanted to see what information we could gather ahead of time, and then provide that information to the Transportation planners,” said McLeod.

From there, the buck stops with city council — and stopping in front of your home is sure to cost bucks aplenty.

So in Calgary, what would be some of the possible communities? Hillhurst, Bridgeland, Victoria Park, Connaught, Sunnyside, Scarboro, Cliff Bungalow, Inglewood, Sunalta, East Village, Eau Claire, West End, Downtown? Maybe even farther out?