The return of the resident parking program and pay street parking is just around the corner.
Beginning May 15 and running until Sept. 15, the resident parking program will be back in full force.
Beginning Saturday, parking along identified residential streets within the waterfront area, is reserved for residents who have registered their vehicles.
In the downtown area, stations are set up for non-residents to pay for their day at the lake.
Resident of Sylvan Lake do not need to pay for parking in the downtown and lakefront area so long as their vehicles are registered with the Town.
“If you are a resident of Sylvan Lake, and have already registered your vehicle, you do not need to re-register, but please ensure your resident parking registration is up-to-date,” the Town said in a press release, adding to make sure things like license plates or addresses have not changed.
New residents, or those who need to update their vehicles registered with the program can do so online at www.sylvanlake.ca/Roads-Parking.
For 2021, the Town is making a few minor changes to the program. These include an increase in rates and a decrease in the hourly limits for on-street parking.
For summer 2021, parking rates are set to increase. The hourly rate will increase from $2/hour to $3/hour and daily rate from $10/day $15/day.
The hourly limit for on-street parking in the downtown area will decrease to a maximum of two hours.
Some businesses in the downtown area had concerns that many people were staying longer than the allotted time, and just risking the ticket.
The Town is also removing the area east of 33 Street from the Visitor Pay Parking Program by request from the residents and the Kennebeek Society.
Late summer 2020 the Town was included on a mobile app used by the Cities of Calgary and Edmonton which allows visitors to pay for their parking services through the app.
The goal of the program is to “reduce the tax burden on residents by generating revenue from visitors to be used for the upkeep and maintenance of the downtown and to provide enhanced enforcement in the downtown.”
In 2020, the pay parking program brought in a gross revenue of $252,478. The total net revenue of the program was $165,537. This is the highest revenue the program has brought in since its inception in 2017.