Options have been laid out by City of Windsor administration when it comes to dealing with issues of noise and loitering at Parking Lot 16 downtown.
The parking lot in question is along Riverside Drive near the foot of Ouellette Avenue, right near the Spirit of Windsor train display.
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino originally raised a council question back in October due to the number of complaints he's received from people living in apartment buildings near the lot about after hours partying and cars performing burnouts.
He requested that administration bring a report back regarding options available for repurposing Lot 16.
At the Environment, Transportation & Public Safety committee meeting on Wednesday four different options were discussed, but they were around trying to mitigate the issues while keeping it as a parking lot.
The report details that repurposing Lot 16 may not resolve the issues of noise and loitering, that there's a likelihood that these challenges could simply shift to nearby parking lots, along with the negative impact of the loss of parking revenues.
There are 84 spaces in Lot 16, and the report also mentioned how the loss of those spaces would have a negative impact on park users.
The option that committee members were in favour of, Option 1, would see the installation of a barrier gate with an integrated pay station to control access to the parking lot.
The initial cost of the barrier gate is just under $52,000, with associated infrastructure upgrade costs estimated to be approximately $10,000.
Agostino made the motion to go forward with the option of adding a barrier gate, while continuing to look into different technologies that can not only help residents in the area but the city as a whole.
"This won't be the only parking lot we look at. Because we do understand in this particular case it has a possibility of moving over a lot. There's other parts of the city where we're going to be talking about this situation. And if down the line this gives us the opportunity to help out the taxpayer and the resident at the same time, for absorbing some of these costs, I think we certainly go with it," he said.
Parking Services Coordinator Bill Kralovensky says the potential barrier could be programmed to enforce specific access times and would have flex pricing available.
"Which on the app gives us that ability to change it on a moment's notice, I log into the computer and I can change it at any time. If there's a special event I can change it for that, time of day as you suggested we could change it for that as well."
Kralovensky says parking enforcement for Lot 16 sometimes is able to go in and lay charges to a driver, but other times they need to call in Windsor Police for some backup to deal with the issues.
He says since they've stepped up enforcement, they're able to drive out offenders who then head elsewhere, which may lead to a need for gate options in other lots.
"Lot 34 to the east, when I go and check that on my mornings to make sure everything is OK, I'm noticing a lot more burnout marks in that one. So as the report alluded to, whatever we do in Lot 16, we're just pushing it further to the east and to the west where we're not at the particular time," he said.
The committee recommended moving forward with Option 1, and the report will now move to a future meeting of city council for discussion and final approval.