St. Albert Inn & Suites will soon charge $4 for a day of parking in its stalls adjacent to the Village Transit Station.
A ticket dispenser is due to be installed next week, said general manager Michael Mazepa.
For years, parking near the transit station has been a source of frustration for transit users and property owners alike. The 540 stalls aren't enough to accommodate the number of people seeking to use the park-and-ride during the post-secondary school year.
The change was necessary because operating a parking lot is expensive, with costs for snow removal, liability insurance and repairs, Mazepa said.
"I'm providing parking for the transit patrons and I'm not recuperating any of the money. All I'm doing is I've been paying out, paying out, paying out," he said.
"It's a situation where we have to do something to move forward."
Violators could be subject to a fine of $75.
The change will apply to 190 stalls that are owned by the St. Albert Inn & Suites. There are a further 350 stalls that will continue to be free of charge. About 220 of these stalls are city-owned while the rest are provided by the owners of the Village Landing commercial property and the Christian Reform Church. Neither of these property owners has indicated an intention to start charging for parking, said St. Albert Transit director Bob McDonald.
As the implementation of a daily parking fee is on private property, the city doesn't have the authority to change the situation and won't get any of the revenue, McDonald said.
His focus will be on spreading the message that there are a limited number of stalls for park-and-ride use.
"We're really going to be doing what we've done in the past which is encourage people to take local bus service where possible to connect with service to Edmonton," McDonald said.
St. Albert Transit has space on its local buses and recently unveiled its NextBus feature, which allows transit users to access real-time bus schedule updates from a web-enabled handheld device such as a smartphone.
"We're hopeful that people are going to take advantage of that and relieve the pressure on park and ride stalls," McDonald said.
Long-term solution
The long-term solution to the park-and-ride woes is a new transit station at the city's southern edge, agreed McDonald and Mazepa. For years, the city has been planning a park-and-ride station in the transportation utility corridor near the intersection of St. Albert Trail and the new leg of Anthony Henday Drive. The province, which owns the land, has repeatedly said that talks won't happen until the road opens this fall.
The new facility is envisioned to provide 1,500 stalls and is targeted for opening in 2014, McDonald said.
