Inner-city Calgarian says changes to residential parking permits will 'destroy' communities

Changes are coming to Calgary's residential parking permit program and one inner-city resident says he fears the new rules will push people out of their communities.

Anthony Wecels has lived in Mission for 17 years — five years were spent in a one bedroom apartment on 22nd Avenue southwest, and the last 12 in a two bedroom apartment directly across the street — and he loves where he lives.

"The community is vibrant. It's wonderful. It's got all the potential amenities that anybody would be looking for," he said.

But Wecels says changes coming to the Residential Parking Permit (RPP) program expected to begin next year will make it a difficult community to live in.

'Destroy property values'

"It's going to destroy the entire property values of the whole community," he said. 

The Calgary Parking Authority says the plan was approved by the city's previous council, and it means that starting January 2023, people living in large, multi-residential buildings — four stories or taller or with more than 20 units — will be ineligible for street parking permits. 

Earlier this month council voted to allow qualifying building residents without permits to apply for the two year passes until Dec. 31.

"Residents of large, multi-residential buildings built before 1945 who currently have a permit will be able to renew their permits until Dec. 31, 2022," the CPA said in statement. "After those permits expire, residents of large, multi-residential buildings built before 1945 will be eligible to apply for a maximum of one permit."

The CPA added that further details will be shared with permit-holders at these buildings prior to the expiry of the permits.

Residents may reconsider area

But Wecels says not only does that mean a lot of existing owners and inhabitants would eventually lose parking too, but those who eventually move to the area would be even worse off.

"Anybody who is new, who comes into the area, anybody who buys a new vehicle or secondhand vehicle will not be able to register and get parking for that. So again, that wipes out most of the people," he said. "For this community, most of the units are double occupancy (per unit) and the buildings exceed 20 units."

He hopes to mobilize his neighbours, and convince city council to reevaluate this plan, or he worries what might happen to his beloved community.

"There's a lot of people who would have to reconsider their living status," he said.

Program expensive for city

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said this decision was made because the current model is expensive for the city and grew at an accelerated rate. 

"It involved millions of dollars of expense for privileged use of publicly owned space, and we realized that that's something we had to ramp down because it was not achieving the community-building objectives that it was set out to do," said the Ward 9 representative.

"What this little baby step involves is basically putting to residential pass-holders the question as to whether this is something that they actually need, and if they need it, they can pay for it. If they don't need it, it can revert to sort of open parking for all Calgarians."

Carra said some areas reserved for residential parking permits will become all-day parking, others will become three-hour parking and some may operate with rates per-hour.

"The beautiful thing about when you start collecting parking revenue is that we have a parking benefits program where the money that's generated within the parking zone actually goes back into the neighborhood to support things in the neighborhood," he said.

Hybrid model proposal

Coun. Terry Wong says he's heard from his Ward 7 constituents and they think the new rules are unfair. 

"They took a look at the fact that, you know, whether you're in the inner-city core or in suburban areas, a lot of people park for free in front of their house," he said.

"The other thing they also are concerned about is a lot of of our residents, whether they be seniors or people with accessibility issues, taking away the ability to park in front of their house is a serious concern for them."

Wong said he plans to bring forward a hybrid model for consideration. 

"That recognizes that the quiet enjoyment of where they are will be preserved, whether it be the existence of free parking in front or whether it be on a zoning basis, if you bought into that property or you lived on that property, you've had that quiet enjoyment," he said.

"We want to continue that. Having said that, though, we do want to address the concerns that were raised with the council. We need to find a way to provide parking to support businesses. So, I look forward to a hybrid approach."