Downtown Windsor is getting more parking.
Ward 3 Councillor Renaldo Agostino is thrilled that city council backed his proposal to bring angled parking to the core.
On the low end, Agostino said adding angled parking could add another 249 parking spaces in an area starved for spots. The addition would result in 864 stalls.
"Anybody who goes downtown on a consistent basis knows how hard it is to find a parking spot on a Thursday or Friday or Saturday night, and you're just driving around and around and around, and you're lazy, and you just want to park in front of the restaurant," said Agostino. "This is going to help address that."
He said he gets as many as three calls a week from businesses saying they'd like to locate downtown, but the lack of parking is holding them back.
"Recently, I had someone call me to ask if I could help them buy out the place next door so they could level it and turn it into a parking lot, so they could convert a building downtown into a residential unit," he recalled.
A city report said it could be done on Chatham and Pitt Streets to start, but Agostino would like to see it elsewhere, too.
"I'm sure there are certain parts of Walkerville around their restaurant district that would love to have angled parking," he added, saying if the plan goes smoothly downtown, councillors may consider making the change elsewhere in the city.
Council also agreed to end parking enforcement at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., and increase the cash fee for parking from $2.25 to $2.50. Those who pay through the app won't see an increase, but a report to the council suggested the increase could encourage more people to use the app.
Meanwhile, Agostino sees the change as one step in a series of many towards improving downtown.
"There's a lot of chess moves by using parking to grow certain areas, and I see this as one of the most important steps in growing our downtown," he said.
