Goderich Passes A Test On Parking Availability In The Downtown Core With Flying Colours

by Bob Montgomery

B. M. Ross presented Goderich council with the results of their study on parking in the downtown square on Monday night.

Mayor Trevor Bazinet says they wanted to make sure they had enough spaces and to find out how long the spaces are occupied. The B. M. Ross team spent six days, including a Saturday on a long weekend, walking around the town checking out parking availability.

They have already added another parking lot to get ready for this summer's downtown infrastructure project and to make sure there's enough parking for the businesses and their employees and county employees during that process. Bazinet says they have added 42 more parking spaces in a parking lot on Stanley Street.

They currently have 698 parking spots available to the public in the downtown core so that's a lot. He says one thing they have to do is put up more signage to let people know where there are parking spots available to them off the main streets. He says another encouraging thing that came out of the study was that most of the spaces are only used for about an hour. They had concerns about some spots being used by county employees or other people for eight hours but he says the study indicated that's not happening.

It might be necessary, on occasion for people to drive around the square once or twice to find a spot near the store they want to get to, but even if they have to park in the next quadrant over from the one they wanted, that's not a serious concern. All in all, council is very pleased with the parking situation on the square in Goderich.