Belleville expects to review parking across the city in the new year with a goal of having five per cent of new parking spaces deemed accessible.
Councillor Barb Enright-Miller, who is also the chair of the city’s Accessibility Advisory Committee tells Quinte News the issue came up during a previous committee meeting.
“The population of Belleville is just over 55,000, Quinte region just over 220,000. So using those numbers, that method, there’s approximately 13,272 people in Belleville and 53,000 in the Quinte area that live with at least one disability and as our population ages, we know these numbers are only going to grow.”
Enright-Miller says they initially suggested 10 per cent of all new parking be accessible, however staff informed them that number is not realistic, with Gananoque offering the highest ratio at five per cent.
“We suggested that we do a feasibility study to see what other municipalities were doing and where we fit in and what we actually had in Belleville, what we needed in Belleville and what our requirements were. We decided to follow Gananoque’s lead and suggest to staff that we come up with five per cent but knowing that we actually had to do a study with some basis of knowledge.”
Enright-Miller says money will be set aside in the 2024 budget for the feasibility study with the results to be used to update the city’s parking by-law.
