Two-hour free parking at municipal lots within the boundaries of the Belleville Downtown District BIA will be happening in 2026.
Belleville City Council approved an amendment to a motion regarding parking in the downtown.
According to a report presented to council, the cost to manage the two-hour free period would increase between $53,000 and $106,000 per year for enforcement officers or between $458,200 and $526,775 to install a parking control system.
Costs for the parking control system include yearly software maintenance fees as well as an increased budget to handle new physical signage.
Accommodating the lost revenue, and considering additional expenses incurred, would require further increases to parking revenue or result in tax levy funding required for parking services.
Annual revenue loss and enforcement costs of approximately $270,000 would represent a 0.20% tax levy impact and the parking capital costs of approximately $525,000 would represent a 0.38% tax levy impact.
Initially, the motion called for council to receive the report and make no further action.
However, Councillor Garnet Thompson put forward an amendment calling for the two-hour free parking at municipal lots within the boundaries of the Belleville Downtown District BIA to begin in 2026.
“The DBIA went through two or three years of homelessness downtown, and they’re still going through it. We get encampments,” Councillor Thompson told council in introducing the amendment.
“People are not wanting to come downtown, and now we’re going to deter them more by not giving them free two-hour parking to entice them to come back downtown to make our city vibrant.”
There was some discussion to potentially looking at the item during budget discussions, with Councillor Sean Kelly noting the tax levy impact.
“I’ve thought long and hard, I had many conversations about this. I question the timing. Is it something that we could direct to the operating budget in February?” Councillor Kelly asked.
“I understand the impact of the $270,000 to potentially the taxpayer, but if we could defer this and see where we could possibly find or look at reductions… this is a tough one, because we need a vibrant community.”
Councillor Lisa Anne Chatten, who seconded the amendment from Councillor Thompson, said she was in favour of the two-hour free parking downtown.
She says the city has a positive obligation to support local businesses in the downtown.
“We’re continually trying to drive traffic towards the downtown core. How can we expect traffic to go down and stay if they’re constantly being being pitted against with with fees and and issues with parking?” Councillor Chatten asked.
“I just really stand firmly with there being two-hour free parking downtown.”
Councillor Paul Carr expressed concerns about adding to the tax levy increase that would come with the move.
“We’re talking about affordability for residents,” Carr said. “I just don’t know how we can look at this in isolation and make yet another pre-budget approval that when we sit here on budget day, we’re going to be shocked as to how we got where we got.”
Mayor Neil Ellis also expressed concerns with the tax levy increase that would come with the motion, saying that combining the 0.20% and 0.38% tax levy impact would mean there would be no way that the total tax levy increase would be under 5%.
“I would support sending it to budget, and staff having a meeting on this, but at the cost of three quarters of a per cent on your taxes or half a per cent, I can’t do it with the way the budget is.”
Ultimately, with the amendment to the motion already on the floor, the two movers of the amendment denied taking a look at moving the motion to budget discussions.
“We’ve got the figures in front of us. Reality is reality,” Councillor Thomson said.
“We talk about a 5% increase. When I got on council a number of years ago, we were worried about a 1% increase… now we’re looking at five, six or 7%. The reality is, this is not a silver bullet. I never said it was going to be a silver bullet. All I’m saying is we need to make sure that our merchants stay viable downtown.”
Voting in favour were councillors Lisa Anne Chatten, Barbara Enright-Miller, Sean Kelly, Margaret Seu, and Garnet Thompson.
Voting against were councillors Paul Carr, Kathryn Brown, and Mayor Neil Ellis.
