City sets up curbside pickup areas to help local businesses
The city is setting up free 15-minute parking areas on every block downtown for easier curbside pickup during the provincewide COVID-19 lockdown.
Signs are being installed to designate areas as 15-minute parking.
Each block downtown will have one of these zones on either side of the street, according to a city press release.
The idea is to allow customers to park for free for 15 minutes to pick up a purchase or food during the lockdown.
The release says the15-minute time limit will be enforced: $25 tickets can be charged for motorists who overstay.
Motorists are reminded in the release not to use accessible parking spots, no-parking zones, bus stops or commercial loading zones when going to pick up a curbside purchase.
Motorists are also reminded not to idle their vehicles for longer than two minutes; it’s prohibited under a city bylaw and a fine of $30 can be charged.
The city’s objective here is to provide high-turnover parking to help stores deal with the lockdown, Mayor Diane Therrien states in the release.
“Local businesses are the backbone of our community and it’s important that we support them, especially during this challenging time,” Therrien states.
Several of the zones were installed on Monday, including one on Hunter Street and Water Street (on west side of Water Street) in front of Le Petit Bar, for example.
Downtown Business Improvement Area executive director Terry Guiel couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday.
The release says the city will monitor parking needs downtown and make further adjustments as needed.
In the summer, the city expanded the sidewalk space in much of the downtown to allow for better physical distancing of pedestrians and to allow for popup restaurant patios in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those widened sidewalks were achieved by closing certain lanes of traffic and making them pedestrian space.
White plastic bollards were installed to delineate which vehicular lanes were closed.
Those bollards were up for the summer and fall and then were removed just after Thanksgiving in October.
Some business owners said those widened sidewalks were helpful, but others said it confused drivers and took away much-needed street parking.
The bollards aren’t being used to delineate the new 15-minute free parking zones.
It’s still unclear whether the widened sidewalks will be set up again later in 2021, though Therrien did not rule it out as the bollards were being removed in the fall.
“It’s hard to predict what next summer’s going to look like, but it’s something we might be reinstating if needed,” Therrien said in October.