A member of Windsor City Council wants to know if business improvement associations with parking meters within their boundaries can get a share of the revenue.
Ward 4 Councillor Mark McKenzie has asked administration for a report on the possibility of a cost-sharing agreement when it comes to revenue generated by parking meters and parking lots within certain BIAs.
McKenzie says the discussion started in his ward with the Walkerville BIA.
"They said, would the city be open to giving us a percentage of the parking meters and the parking lot revenue they get in any given year? I ran the numbers and had a discussion with a couple of other councillors and the mayor, and we thought, 'Let's have a report come back to council, and we can discuss it, '" he says.
McKenzie says in the four BIAs within his ward-the Walkerville, Erie Street, Ottawa Street, and Wyandotte Town Centre-you must pay for parking, but other BIAs don't require that.
McKenzie says the beautification budget for the BIAs has been cut in recent city budgets.
"Those are some of the discussions we've had, and I've said what if we did give some of that parking revenue to the BIAs. Maybe there are stipulations on it as well that you've got to spend it on beautification or something along those lines," he says.
But he doesn't think a 50 per cent split is necessary.
"I think that 5 to 10 per cent is reasonable. Obviously different BIAs, downtown for example, have the most parking meters, so that will be a lot more revenue that they'll bring in as opposed to a Walkerville BIA that has very few meters and only one parking lot," he says.
The report is expected to come back to a future meeting of city council.