Downtown Sudbury BIA welcomes 3-hour parking limit

The Downtown Sudbury BIA agrees with a decision bycity councilto limit on-street parking to three hours.

This fall, when the pay-by-plate parking system replaces parking meters in Sudbury's downtown core, the time limit will change from two hours to three hours, however, there will not be an option to top up your time.

Instead, you'll have to move your car.

"We're trying to discourage the people who are feeding the meters all day, to encourage them to park elsewhere to free up parking for our customers," said Maureen Luoma, the executive director of the Downtown Sudbury BIA.

She says many people don't realize how big of an issue it is, she says people who work in the downtown often park on the street and feed the meter all day.

"There's a number of people who do that, which I'm always surprised at because it costs an awful lot more to do that than it would be just to park in a parking lot," she said.

While, she agrees that the three hour time limit is not a perfect solution, it's a welcomed change for many downtown business owners and customers. The Downtown BIA has been talking with the city to find better parking solutions for street parking for years.

"It's going to be a change and it's going to be a difficult one. For someone coming down for lunch, someone coming down for going shopping, if you're parking on the street three hours is good and in the evenings and weekends, coming down on Saturday it's free all day so there's lots of time," said Luoma.

The BIA is still looking into other options that will help people who might need a little more than three hours, however, no decisions have been made yet.

"When the pay-by-plate machines come in, in the fall, there is an opportunity that's currently being discussed where there may be some flexibility in that so it has a three hour limit but if you want to park longer there might be an option where the rate will be increased," Luoma said.

Luoma says she's also excited that city council passed a motion on Tuesday to explore options for parking structures in the downtown core that will provide about 200 more spaces.