St. Catharines increasing parking fee for special events

Maximum rate will be $10 when big crowds are expected

St. Catharines is expanding when and where it applies a special event parking fee, but city council stopped short of hiking the price to $20 from $5 on particularly busy nights at the urging of the downtown business community.

Council instead voted to allow a maximum $10 parking fee this year, with $20 on the books for next year’s rates and fees discussion.

The higher-end special event fee will be charged when there are large-scale “one-off events” downtown that bring thousands of people to the core at once. That includes this weekend when the Born and Raised concert will be happening in Montebello Park and Cirque du Soleil performs at Meridian Centre.

City staff recommended the maximum $20 fee be implemented immediately, but Rachel Braithwaite, executive director of St. Catharines Downtown Association, told council applying the amount, even on limited occasions, would hurt businesses still recovering from losses during the pandemic.

“If you’re going retail shopping, you’re not going to go and park for $20 to go look at something that you might want to purchase. So it really hinders the success rate of our businesses.”

She said if the fee was imposed, many downtown businesses could end up closing on event days, which would not leave visitors coming to the city with the nicest perception of St. Catharines.

Matt Sherman of Showtime Comedy and Entertainment on St. Paul Street also urged council not to go ahead with the special rate, telling them a $20 parking charge is more than the cost of admission at his business or for a burger at a restaurant.

He said parking is already a challenge for patrons due to limited spaces and full lots.

“I think it will negatively impact a lot of businesses downtown, when all you’re doing is trying to go for quick bite to eat or going to the gym when parking is $20,” he said. “Even if it’s only sometimes, it doesn’t matter.”

Braithwaite also asked for more communication from the city as downtown businesses don’t get a lot of heads-up about what days special event parking is being implemented.

St. Catharines usually has free parking on weekends and evenings but charges a $5 special event parking fee when there are big events at Meridian Centre and Firstontario Performing Arts Centre. The fees are applied to certain city-owned lots.

Council voted Monday to expand the special event parking fee to include events at Montebello Park, which has a capacity of 15,000 people — far larger than both the Meridian and performing arts centres.

It also allowed the fee to be applied to any lot managed, owned or under contract by the city.

And it voted 12-1 to allow a maximum $10 fee for special occasions, with Port Dalhousie Coun. Carlos Garcia the only holdout for keeping the $5 flat rate.

Financial management services director Kristine Douglas estimated 90 per cent of the special event parking will be at the minimum $5 rate with the $10 fee applied the other 10 per cent of the time.

“They would be one-off events and they would be infrequent events where there would be multiple events occurring in the downtown at Montebello Park as well as the Meridian Centre,” she said, adding the combined locations would bring about 20,000 ticket holders downtown.