DBIA Has Requests of Cobourg Council
(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
The new downtown parking rules, allowing three hours free year-round in downtown Cobourg, are eliciting a mixed response among downtown residents and businesses.
The concerns were brought to council this week by Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty on behalf of the Downtown Business Improvement Area. Beatty noted that, while more people seem to be downtown, their longer stays mean that parking spaces are not turning over. And while shoppers are parking and staying, downtown residents often can’t park near their homes.
There is a new three-hour free maximum time, but no maximum for afterwards when the time must be paid for. You might park somewhere free for three hours but, at that point, can run out and pay for any number of hours afterwards.
The DBIA was hoping to keep the three hours free, but set a maximum overall time in any one space of four hours.
Municipal Clerk Brent Larmer was asked how many complaints the town had received, and he noted that there had been one from a DBIA member.
With that few complaints, Mayor Lucas Cleveland said, “I would be remiss to support changing something we are less than two and a half months into. It’s been two months – I would give it at least six or seven.”
The motion to establish a four-hour maximum was amended by Councillor Miriam Mutton to make the three free hours also the maximum time in one spot.
“Having three hours free and a maximum of four hours is confusing,” Mutton complained.
Cleveland referred to 150 e-mail in his in-box complaining about the parking troubles people have while attending special events downtown, like shows at Victoria Hall. A three-hour maximum would mean leaving a show or a concert or other event to run out and park a car elsewhere, he pointed out.
The amended motion was defeated. A vote was then held on the original motion for a four-hour maximum, which was also defeated.
The DBIA had asked for another consideration, this time for its patio operators. This year, if you want one, you pay $27.50 a day. DBIA wants to make it $1 a day for DBIA members, retroactive to the start of patio season.
Larmer explained that there’s a difference between sidewalk patios – where the owner pays a $250 application fee – and the daily fee a business pays if its patio takes up a parking spot. This second fee is meant to help the town to recoup the parking revenue it loses by forfeiting a parking spot.
The thing is, Beatty pointed out, these businesses were not asked to pay the fee last year. And since two or three patios have closed since that time, “the businesses see it as a patio deficit,” she said.
“Patios on the street are beautification and a bit of a tourist driver.”
The motion to grant the DBIA’s request was amended by Cleveland to direct staff to report back on the outdoor patio fee adjustment and, meanwhile, implement a $16.50 daily fee – with assurances that this would be the maximum in any case – until staff could report back. Under this set-up, the permit would be issued with the gee collected upon finalization of an approved report by council.
Upon hearing from Beatty that Port Hope’s fee was $15 a day, Cleveland amended his motion to follow suit for Cobourg.
“I’ll be darned if I will let Port Hope have a lower fee than us,” he declared.
In the end, Cleveland’s motion passed, with only Beatty and Aaron Burchat voting against.
