A couple of small pieces of property that are neither boulevard nor parking lot have become sweet spots for the city to issue tickets, say some frustrated Victoria business owners.
“To me, it’s basic entrapment because it looks like parking spaces here,” said Jim Fields, one of the owners of Adrenalin Motorcyle Co-op, in the 700 block of Pembroke Street.
“They won’t do anything to change it. They won’t put grass in there so it looks like a boulevard. They just keep flinging these tickets at people when, for all intents and purposes, it looks like a parking lot,” Fields said.
At issue at Adrenalin and other Pembroke businesses are some off-street parking areas that came to the attention of city hall last fall. They look like parking spots and, for about 40 years, have been used for parking. But to the city, they are considered boulevard.
No one would have given the situation a second thought had it not been for a commuter from Langford who was so used to parking in the area that when someone else used the spot she considered hers, she tried to free it up by complaining to city hall that people were parking on the boulevard.
That triggered a world of grief for the Pembroke Street businesses. Bylaw enforcement is complaint-driven. The city looked into the matter and determined all of the spaces immediately adjacent to the south side of Pembroke are on a public right-of-way and shouldn’t be used for parking.
A commissionaire wasn’t far behind.
“You’re there for two minutes. He sits on a scooter down the block waiting for people to pull into these areas that look like parking spots. Then he whips right up and gives them tickets. It’s just creating all this ill will for all our customers,” Fields said.
Just up the block at Advance Collision, the city has stencilled “no stopping” onto the pavement of the four paved parking stalls closest to the sidewalk. Advance staff regularly place a plastic traffic cone in each of the four stalls to further discourage customers from using them for fear they will be ticketed.
For decades, these stalls have been part of Advance’s parking lot. Advance Collision owner Sherry Baird said they were paved after verbal approval was given to her father 35 to 40 years ago by the city. But the property is considered boulevard by the city.
“I won’t call it boulevard. I call it undeveloped, public right-of-way,” said a frustrated Baird, whose customers are being ticketed if they park in those stalls.
Mayor Dean Fortin, hoping to generate revenue by perhaps leasing or selling the rights-of-way to the businesses, has asked for a staff report on the extent of the situation and the revenue potential.
Just how many businesses downtown are in the same boat as those on Pembroke is hard to say. But they certainly exist.
On Washington Avenue, just off Gorge Road East, 26 paved parking stalls are marked as “guest” parking exclusively for the Travelodge Hotel. However, those 26 stalls are actually on a city right-of-way. [See photo]
Fortin looks at those Washington Avenue stalls and sees potential revenue.
Baird and Fields look at those stalls and see uneven bylaw enforcement.
“It’s been a very frustrating process,” said Baird, who supports addressing the situation through a lease or purchase arrangement. She said she can’t believe this amount of hardship could arise “from one frivolous complaint.”
Until the matter is sorted out, she believes the situation that existed for the past 40 years should apply and ticketing should stop.
“I’m in shock by a city that is trying to cause hardship for its businesses. … I understand that a city can’t confer a benefit to a business, but I think they can at least work with us and treat us equally,” she said.
Fortin said any customer who receives a ticket for unknowingly parking in the area can have it dismissed. But tickets won’t be forgiven to business employees or others who knowingly park in the disputed stalls. “City staff said, ‘While we’re working on the issue, don’t park there.’ Now if someone else parks there, customers or someone else off the street, then we’re going to write off those tickets,” Fortin said.
“But it is one of those ones where it is complaint-based. So if there is a complaint, obviously parking [enforcement] comes.”
