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Penticton city offers four spots for 10 minute free parking on Main Street

The four reserved parkings spots are in the 300, 400, 500 and 600 block
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One of the four 10 minute free parking spots the city has set up is in the 500 block in front of the Lifted cannabis store. (Monique Tamminga Western News)

In response to downtown businesses’ concerns, the city of Penticton has designated four reserved 1o minute free parking spots in locations along Main Street.

These temporary stalls will be in place to provide a free quick-stop option for customers to conveniently pick up their takeout and curbside orders downtown.

“The purpose of these free parking stalls is to support our local businesses by making it easy and convenient for their customers to come downtown and pick up their orders, without needing to pay at a parking meter,” said Blake Laven, city director of development services.

The locations of these parking stalls on Main Street are:

• 300 Block – in front of Mikes Pawnbrokers - 333 Main St

• 400 Block – in front of Apex Optometry 462 Main St

• 500 Block – in front of Angry Vegan’s new location at 536 Main St

• 600 Block – in front of Cheers Church 639 Main St.

These reserved spots have signage indicating “Ten-minute free parking, reserved for curbside pickup only.” The branding has the ability to change over time to be reflective of different programs and seasons.

The city is looking into expanding the 10-minute free parking spots into Ellis Street and Westminster, said Laven.

Downtown small businesses have said they felt the change in pay parking instantly when it was implemented in May. Some have even seen their revenues nearly drop in half.

There was initial confusion about whether coins could be used for minute parking in the new pay station units. Twenty-five cents buys you seven minutes and 50 cents buys you 15 minutes.

A petition was started four days ago and has already grown to over 1,400 signatures asking to go back to free parking downtown.

READ MORE: Petition tops 1,400 in four days to go back to free parking downtown

On top of new pay parking in the downtown, businesses and customers are feeling the pains of road closures and construction both for the new Lake-to-Lake bike path and for water line upgrades.

White Avenue and Padmore have been closed for more than a week in the 500 and 600 block of Main. There is construction going on for the bike lane on Martin.

The curbside pickup parking stalls are now featured on Picnic-ton’s interactive map, which also identifies participating food and beverage businesses, as well as nearby parks and picnic facilities. Visit penticton.ca/picnic to see the map and scope out your next trip downtown.

More than 45 businesses have registered to participate in the Picnic-ton program. The curbside parking stalls can be used for pickup at any location downtown, whether or not the business is a Picnic-ton participant.

READ MORE: New pay parking frustrates, hurts business

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.

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Monique Tamminga

About the Author: Monique Tamminga

Monique brings 20 years of award-winning journalism experience to the role of editor at the Penticton Western News. Of those years, 17 were spent working as a senior reporter and acting editor with the Langley Advance Times.
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