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Street parking in downtown Salmon Arm: should it be limited to one hour or two?

Two business organizations survey to find out what citizens think about downtown parking
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The issue of whether street parking in downtown Salmon Arm should be limited to one hour or two arises again. (Martha Wickett/Salmon Arm Observer)

One hour or two? That age old – or at least years old – debate is arising once again.

Should street parking in Salmon Arm be one hour, as it is now, or lengthened to two?

The topic has been on people’s minds, as both the Salmon Arm Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Salmon Arm have been surveying their members about it.

Corryn Grayston, general manager of the Salmon Arm Chamber of Commerce, says the chamber’s survey wraps up Friday afternoon, May 10. Of the 40 people who had responded by Friday morning, more than 80 per cent want the one-hour street parking downtown increased to a longer duration.

She said, for a small town, 40 is a pretty good representation.

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At Downtown Salmon Arm, manager Lindsay Wong says the organization has received numerous comments from its members and the community at large regarding downtown parking, which led to a survey.

Still ongoing, the survey asks respondents to state whether they are for one-hour or two-hour street parking downtown and email their responses back to: events@salmonarmdowntown.com.

“This has been going on for many years,” says Wong. “It was quite a topic when I came on board in 2014 or even prior to that.”

She said most people who have communicated with the association have said one hour is just not long enough.

“We’re just trying to compile the data first and see where that brings us. If this is what people want, we’d like to push for an immediate change, because we are coming up to our busy season fairly quickly here.”

Both organizations will be sharing their results with city council.


@SalmonArm
marthawickett@saobserver.net

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Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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