Downtown Guelph will soon have 46 new parking spaces.
The downtown’s newest parking lot, on city-owned property on the north end of Wyndham Street, is slated to open on or around Aug. 27, said Anna Marie O’Connell, supervisor of parking facilities for the City of Guelph.
The lot, which replaces two buildings demolished by the city late last year, cannot open until construction work is finished on the privately-owned building immediately to the north, O’Connell said.
“Safety’s first,” she said.
As well, some of the curb stops have to be moved and the lighting is not quite finished, she said.
The city is also awaiting installation of a new solar-powered pay-and-display parking machine in the new lot.
O’Connell was excited to note that the new parking machine will take not only cash, but also Visa and Mastercard. “We’ve never done that before in the city,” she said.
The parking lots on Wilson and Macdonell streets, which have machines due to be replaced, will also be getting new solar-powered credit card machines, she said. She would not say what the new machines cost.
The charge to park in the Wyndham lot will be $1.75 per hour to a daily maximum of $17.50 – the same price as the nearby Baker Street lot, she said. There will also be some parking – about 10 spaces – for permit holders in the new lot, she said, noting that if hourly spaces are underused, more permits may be added. The cost for a permit is $75 a month.
Currently, the Wyndham lot is obscured from the street by plywood, but that will come down when the lot opens, said O’Connell.
Drivers will still not be able to access the parking from Wyndham Street, though. Instead, they get to it from Park Lane, a small street accessible from the one-way north end of Baker Street.
The lot, part of the Baker Street redevelopment site, will be used for parking until redevelopment of the land begins. Plans for the site include a new Guelph Public Library, public parking and private development.