Parking all day in Ladner Village will soon be a thing of the past.
A staff report to be discussed by Delta council Monday recommends the municipality enforce a new three-hour restriction on streets throughout the Ladner core.
Currently, some streets have two-hour signs while others one-hour parking limits, but they do little because of a lack of enforcement.
The lack of parking has been an issue for years in the village. Business and office employees are seen as the biggest culprits in taking up valuable customer spots.
The problem was exacerbated earlier this year when management of Ladner Harbour Centre served notice to businesses whose employees park in the shopping centre's parking lot that they would be towed.
Coun. Jeannie Kanakos, who will be acting mayor at Monday's meeting, told the Optimist the new three-hour limit is a good compromise following consultation with the Ladner Business Association.
"That would give me time to go for lunch, do some shopping and it's throughout the core of Ladner, so it's consistent," she said.
The only exception would be a 20-minute limit in front of the Ladner bottle depot.
Kanakos also noted an LBA suggestion that wasn't included in the staff recommendations is to waive the restrictions for veterans. That may end up as an amendment during the council vote, she said.
Earlier this year, LBA president Jackey Zellweger noted in a letter to council that members voted in favour of an enforced threehour limit throughout the downtown core.
Zellweger told the Optimist local employees need to be aware they must park their vehicles elsewhere, including Memorial Park, which is only a short walk away.
"When they park in front of their retail store and they (owners) see that car parked out there at nine and then they look out there at four and same car is still there, that's the problem. People who want to shop have commented that they've driven around and couldn't find a parking spot, so they don't bother," she said.
The parking debate has only intensified as the municipality looked for ways to revitalize the Ladner waterfront and downtown core, recently approving guidelines to encourage redevelopment.
According to a consultant, a clear parking strategy is needed for the area because current capacity needs to be balanced with additional pressures that may come from redevelopment, particularly "destination" uses.
A Delta parking review a decade ago found Ladner businesses were not in favour of pay parking as a management tool.
Delta remains one of the few, if not only, Lower Mainland municipality not to have street or lot pay parking.
