More Parking Options Coming to Kelowna

Parking in this city has always been a subject of concern, especially during tourism season when Kelowna’s population increases substantially, but with a couple of new projects on the horizon, finding a parking spot won’t always be a huge headache.

The two largest parking projects on the horizon include the Library Parkade Expansion and the Memorial Parkade.

Photo credit: KelownaNow.

Through means of an alternative approval process, the City of Kelowna acquired $15 million to put toward the expansion of the library parkade and the construction of a new parkade on the Memorial Arena property.

The library project is expected to replace some of the stalls lost on surface lots to development sites, accommodate the new developments, and provide more weekend and evening parking. The library expansion project will create an additional 197 parking stalls, bringing the total up to 668.

Preliminary construction for the Library Parkade has already begun and will be completed in 2016.

Photo credit: KelownaNow.

According to the City, with the new Kelowna Community Health Services building going up, along with various other businesses in and around the Doyle region, additional parking must be added to accommodate nearly 800 people moving into the area.

Construction timing of the Memorial Parkade will be coordinated with completion of the Kelowna Community Health Services building.

Aside from the two parkade projects currently underway, on-street parking is receiving a little tender, love, and care as well.

According to Parking Operations Coordinator Dave Duncan, the on-street parking meters are moving into the 21st century.

Adding a pay-by-phone service to the downtown parking meters will allow for citizens to park in the city centre and conveniently pay for services with their cell phones.

Photo credit: KelownaNow.

Registering for the pay-by-phone service is easy and quick. Simply go online, fill out the registration form, and you’re good to go.

“So basically, you have to set an account, but once you have an account set up with pay-by-phone, it's very simple to use. You basically come up to the side of the meter, there's a location on the side, you punch the location code in, you say how much time you want, and it'll even text you a reminder when your time is about to run out," said Duncan.

Residents can also add money to the meter from anywhere in the City via their cell phone. Plus, the pay-by-phone parking service is also available anywhere in North America, as long as you have an account.

At the moment, pay-by-phone services are only available in the downtown core, but the City is working on implementing additional services in the South Pandosy region as well.

For additional information on parking and to checkout the City's interactive parking map, click here.

This article on parking is the fourth development feature in a weekly Kelowna Investment series by KelownaNow.

Check-in next week for when KelownaNow will be looking into bike lanes in the City.

You can also click on the following links to checkout past articles on the RCMP building, the Queensway and Pandosy transit exchange projects, and up-coming park development projects.