Downtown Business Community Requests Change in Burlington's December Free P Parking Program

Burlington's Transportation Services Department will be bringing a report to next Tuesday's (Oct. 6) Community Planning, Regulation and Mobility (CPRM) Committee with a request from our downtown business community to change the December Free P Parking program.CPRM Committee will be asked to approve the amendment to By-law 39-2016, otherwise known as the “Parking and Idling By-law”, to discontinue December free parking in all downtown parking facilities effective Dec. 1, 2020.On June 17, 2013, the Council at the time approved free parking for all on-street meters and in municipal parking facilities in the Defined Parking Area in downtown Burlington for the month of December. The intent of this initiative was to improve the parking experience and support economic activity, special events, tourism, and visitor activity in the downtown throughout the month of December.Since that time, the program served its purpose and was well received by the downtown business community. However, over the past several years, the benefit of the program has been challenged and in December 2019, the Downtown Parking Committee (DPC) was informed that the consensus among the Burlington Downtown Business Association (BDBA) membership was that the program is no longer achieving the original goal, and additionally, that the reduced turnover in parking spaces observed during the Free P period has become detrimental to business activity.MY TAKE:We've heard from the downtown business community and I support the request from the DPC and the larger business community to end the program.--Click this link to the full staff report on December Free P Parking Program. For the full agendas to next week's committee meetings, please visit burlington.ca/calendar.The CPRM Committee begins at 9:30 a.m. Final approval of committee’s recommendation will head to the Oct. 19 Council meeting.