Parking issue in core ‘being addressed’

Man complains to Cambridge panel about the lack of overnight spots

CAMBRIDGE — Roderick Wenzel’s fiancée racks up parking tickets whenever she visits him in downtown Galt, and Wenzel is fed up.

“There is no overnight parking in the downtown core. I think it’s a huge oversight,” he told Cambridge’s general committee Tuesday night.

“It may seem trivial but getting a ticket is a traumatic experience.”

There are 20 public parking lots in the downtown cores of Galt, Hespeler and Preston but parking between 2:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. isn’t allowed.

The city recently added overnight parking exemptions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to draw more people to downtown Galt.

But Wenzel said people should be allowed to use pay-and-display lots in the wee hours of the morning on weekdays, too.

“The Water Street lot sits empty all night, it has an electronic attendant,” he said, adding it would be simple to reprogram the system to accept payments overnight.

Coun. Frank Monteiro, part of the city’s parking working group, on Tuesday told Wenzel the group is looking at possible solutions to the overnight parking problem.

“It’s being addressed. I was a meeting last week. We will have a resolution soon,” he said.

Staff gave Wenzel three options:

Only have visitors on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays when overnight parking is allowed, call in advance to schedule a weeknight parking exemption (you only get five per year) or purchase a monthly parking permit.

Wenzel said he had no issues paying for overnight parking in the pay-and-display lot on Water Street South but he doesn’t think it’s fair to have to buy costly monthly permits.

“There is no short-term solution,” he added.

He pointed out that more overnight parking options downtown will make the core more vibrant and allow other apartment dwellers like him to have overnight visitors.

Coun. Jan Liggett, the downtown Galt ward councillor, said she hears a lot of complaints about the lack of overnight parking from residents and landlords alike.

“We’re listening to what people have to say,” she said.

A staff report on the issue is expected to come to council in the spring.

Cambridge’s downtown cores have free two-hour parking in most areas. There are also free 12-hour lots, metered lots and parking spaces as well as pay-anddisplay lots.

Permit parking is available in some parking lots in Cambridge’s downtown core areas.