Those parking for long periods on Lake Cowichan’s South Shore Road could soon be issued tickets from the municipality.
The Town of Lake Cowichan received a letter from local businesswoman Nasim Charania stating that she has observed vehicles parked in the areas designated for two-hour parking on South Shore Road that remain there for the entire workday.
She said this long-term parking discourages potential customers from accessing nearby businesses due to the lack of available and convenient parking.
“I notice that there are two-hour parking signs already installed along South Shore Road, but they don’t seem to be observed,” Charania said. “I respectfully suggest that the town consider implementing time-limited parking to one hour. Such a measure would increase parking turnover, making it easier for shoppers to visit the area and support businesses.”
At Lake Cowichan’s council meeting on July 22 where the letter was on the agenda, Coun. Kristine Sandhu said she has also noticed that there are vehicles that are parked on South Shore Road all day.
“Since this has been brought forward from a member of the community, I think that we should address it,” she said.
John Thomas, Lake Cowichan’s new CAO, said he and the town’s bylaw officer are currently studying the issue, and that the officer has the necessary training is in place to issue bylaw infraction tickets.
“There is a bit of work that we would need to do internally to set up the infrastructure for collecting fees and making sure that delinquent ticket holders are actually held accountable, and [we're looking at] what those next steps can look like, which would also include an appeals process that we would need to have in place,” Thomas said.
“So we’re doing some research at the moment and we should have a report for council in the near future on that.”
Mayor Tim McGonigle said the parking study that was recently completed mentions the opportunity for pay parking in the town in the future.
“We’re just looking at the capital assets that would be needed for that,” he said. “So, along with that complaint, we would be moving forward with some of the recommendations in that parking study.”
