The St. Albert Inn & Suites move to charge for parking near the Village Tree transit station seems to be working out so far.
The inn implemented the new system last week in time for the beginning of the school year, when the transit system starts to attract post-secondary students headed for NAIT, Grant MacEwan University and the University of Alberta.
The hotel’s general manager Michael Mazepa said so far there have been no problem with the $4 per day charge for parking.
“We have not had a single issue.”
The change applies to 190 stalls that are owned by the St. Albert Inn & Suites. There are a further 350 stalls that 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.
Mazepa has contracted with a private company to look over the lot and issue tickets, but he said he has asked them to give everyone fair notice.
“The company that is providing the service for us is giving notice or warning over the last week in order to be fair.”
When they begin issuing tickets, the fine will be $75.
Mazepa said he started charging because the parking situation was beginning to affect the hotel’s business.
“This isn’t about revenue. It isn’t about me or the hotel making money. It is about being fair. It was being overused and over-abused,” he said. “It was affecting my business. My guests could not park at the back of the hotel. It was as simple as that.”
Mazepa said there is a phone number on the ticket dispenser for questions, comments and complaints, but so far he hasn’t received any of those concerns.
Garnet Melnyk, the city’s senior municipal enforcement officer, said that, in other areas where the city looks for illegal parking, there also have not been any major issues.
“Nothing as of today’s date. We haven’t had any big major issues or problems.”
The city encourages transit users to take a local bus to the station to avoid having to park at all, but there has been a constant problem with parking at transit centres.
In 2009, the city instituted a shuttle for users from the Akinsdale Arena parking lot, but it was cancelled when few users took advantage.
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, but the province is unwilling to discuss selling or transferring the land until the ring road is complete.
