A Langford resident is raising concerns about the parking situation in the Belmont Market area after the company behind the retail development made changes to its parking policy.
On Monday (Aug. 14), commercial development owner Crombie REIT installed signs restricting parking in the outdoor parking lots to customers only, and for no longer than three hours at a time. Any vehicle found parking longer than that would face fines or be towed.
For Mary Howley, who lives at the nearby Crossing at Belmont apartment building managed by Killam Apartment REIT, that meant she and her neighbours suddenly found themselves without parking for their second vehicles as they had enjoyed since they moved in.
”They’ve put us between a rock and a hard place,” said Howley. “When we moved here in 2020, we were told we could park outside. Most people have two cars. There is only one spot underground per unit, so the excess was told we can park outside.”
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Howley said enforcement of the new rules has been quick, with several of her neighbours already being fined $65.
In an emailed statement, Crombie – based in Nova Scotia – said the added “controls” to their parking lots were implemented to “ensure we can meet existing parking commitments to our commercial tenants.”
Crombie also said it will be responding to all correspondence it receives from affected residents in adjacent residential buildings, and is “exploring both temporary and long-term solutions in an effort to help alleviate parking limitations experienced by residents living in the area.”
Despite the statement, Howley said she is concerned with how suddenly the change was made, without advance notice to residents, and with what she considered lacklustre responses to resident concerns from Crombie.
”No one has provided a resolution or even any options, and that’s what we are fed up about,” she said. “I contacted Crombie, I suggested the tenants be able to pay a monthly fee to be able to park here, and they discarded that.”
Howley said she would like to see Crombie do more to work with residents to find a solution, and in the short term, make an exception to the three-hour parking limit for residents so they can avoid fines until more discussions can be had on how to move forward.
More permanent solutions could include allowing residents to park beyond three hours overnight and outside of business hours, or converting a nearby parking lot, which was originally built to support a since shuttered gym into residential overflow.
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