Belleville approves 2-hour free downtown parking in 5-3 vote, subsidizing shoppers and business owners with 0.2% tax increase

Belleville Council approved free parking for the first 2 hours in Downtown Belleville (DBIA) during regular business hours on weekdays, effectively reversing previous commitments to make the parking system self-sustaining.

There was already free parking:

• For 1 hour on Front Street, after that it would be $1.50 per hour.
• After 5PM on weekdays
• Weekends

The decision marks a significant shift in policy. By moving away from a “user-pay” model where drivers who visit downtown cover the costs of lot maintenance and operations, Council has opted to subsidize downtown parking through the general property tax base.

Belleville paid $50,000 for the Downtown Belleville Parking Study to figure out how revenues could be increased to balance the parking budget (which was running at a deficit) and keep it self-sustaining and approved Phase 1 recommendations to increase revenues by $275,000, which would have balanced the parking budget.

Financial impact

The decision effectively transfers the increased revenue ($275,000) from raising the hourly rate from $1 to $1.50 and the monthly permit fees back to Downtown Belleville businesses in the form of 2-hour free parking (at cost of $270,000), essentially neutralizing the financial benefits of Phase 1 of the Parking Study, which recommended that parking services be self-sustaining (revenue neutral). Now taxpayers will cover the parking budget’s deficit to subsidize Downtown Belleville.

The decision overrides the recommendations from the Parking Study and public survey results:

• Recommendation 7.3.1 of the Parking Study explicitly advises the parking system should be self-sustaining – maintaining a user pay approach.
• The public opinion survey which received 952 responses found that residents’ desire for more free parking is highly popular but ranks second last when asked if tax increases should be used to cover the costs of free parking – advocating that the parking system should be self-sustaining.

The recommendation in the Parking Study and the findings of the public survey were overridden by most council members in favour of downtown business owners, and made taxpayers subsidize downtown parking with a 0.2% property tax increase in 2026.

More monitoring or infrastructure required to enforce the program

Implementing a 2-hour free window in all BDIA lots will require sustained monitoring to manage turnover and compliance. This can be managed in two ways: hiring more enforcement officers or installing a parking management system.

Hiring more enforcement officers (0.2% property tax increase)

Staff would expect at least one new hire ($53,000 per year), possibly two ($106,000 per year).

The free parking program will have an estimated $270,000 budgetary impact:

• $165,000 in lost parking revenues per year
• $106,000 cost of enforcement around the free parking window

That will result in a general property tax increase of 0.2% in the 2026 Operating Budget.

Parking management system (0.5% property tax increase)

A full parking control system for the Riverside and Front Street lots is estimated to cost between $458,000 to $527,000, including digital signage and yearly software management fees.

The free parking program will have an estimated $270,000 budgetary impact:

• $165,000 in lost parking revenues per year
• Parking capital costs of approximately $525,000 to install a parking management system in the Capital Budget

That would result in a 0.5% property tax increase (0.12% to cover parking revenues, 0.38% to install parking system).

This decision benefits Downtown Belleville benefiting business owners by incentivizing people to visit and downtown shoppers who will pay less to park by shifting $270k in costs from those who visit downtown and pay for parking to all property taxpayers in Belleville.

Belleville had previously approved increasing the hourly parking rate from $1 to $1.50 per hour in 2026.

Councillor Thompson proposed 2-hour free parking amendment

The motion originally called for council to receive the report and make no further action:

That Council receive the Deputy City Clerk’s Report #DCC-2025-06 entitled Consideration of  2-hour free parking in municipal lots within the BDIA boundaries.

Councillor Thompson, who represents the city on the Belleville Downtown Improvement Area Board and formerly worked in menswear retail at Lafferty’s downtown for about ten years proposed adding the following amendment:

And that the City implement 2-hour free parking in the municipal lots within the BDIA boundaries in 2026.

Thompson stated that Belleville has never had so many merchants move into downtown and is finally getting downtown to were it needs to be.

Discussion

So, we’re going to possibly reject this tonight for a 0.2% increase in our taxes and all the other things that we do in this city? And without the merchants, without the traffic downtown, what do we got in the city of Belleville? What do we got when a merchant or when a manufacturer comes into the City of Belleville and sees all the stores empty? Are they going to want to set up a factory? I’ll let you guys decide that. But I think we’re doing unjust [sic] to these merchants.

The DBIA has worked very diligently, and they’ve gone through some pretty tough times in the last 3 years. And I know I’m talking a long time, but I’m very passionate about this. The DBIA went through two or three years of homelessness downtown, and they’re still going through it. We get encampments. People are not wanting to come downtown. And now we’re going to deter them more by not giving them free two hour parking to entice them to come back downtown to make our city vibrant and make what we want in our city is a downtown. When you go back to 50 years ago and I’ve heard it from people: how are we going to get the merchants to be uniform hours?

That’s the job the DBIA is going to have to be focused on to get more uniform hours. And I agree with that. Uniform hours is a problem downtown, but we got to get them downtown first to get the uniform hours.

Councillor Garnet Thompson

Councillor Brown asked how much the benefit from Phase 1 of the Parking Study changes would have:

Could finance confirm what the actual benefit would be from the phase one that was that will be included in the operating budget? I’d just like a comparison of what we’re losing versus what we had projected we would we would gain from phase one.

Councillor Kathryn Brown

Currently, the revenue projections for the 2026 Operating Budget have about a $275,000 increase across meter, permit, and fine revenue.

Director of Finance Brandon Ferguson

So in reality, and I just want to confirm, $275,000 was projected as an increase in 2026 and this would take out, either through increased cost or loss of revenue would be $270,000. So net that all out – phase one would result in about 5k in our budget. Is that correct?

Councillor Kathryn Brown

That’s correct. 

Director of Finance Brandon Ferguson

Councillor Kelly questioned the timing and wondered if they could move the decision to the Operating Budget in February:

Just to be transparent, I sit on the transportation committee and we’ve had this in front of us now for several months and I’m also the city’s economic development chair for the city’s committee and I’ve worked closely on many projects with the downtown over the last 100 [sic] years.

In 2025, 19 new businesses, 8 have closed. Foot traffic is down. We just heard from the city’s chief of police and some of the challenges and he alluded to the downtown. I know and the mayor knows over the last several years the discussions we’ve had with the downtown businesses with some of the unhoused and some of the challenges that’s caused in our downtown whether it’s violence, drugs. I think it’s fair to say, residents in the city of Belleville haven’t felt safe. And if you don’t feel safe, the challenge is to go to that place and spend some time.

When I look at our downtown, I look at the successful festivals and social and community things. And I will touch on the summer solstice, June 21st, home run, blues fest, jazz fest, Caribbean festival. I look at the successful social programs, the red dress walk for missing indigenous women and children at market square and they make their walk downtown.

The light the night for the three oaks was just a few weeks ago. This area is the highest in the province for domestic violence. And here we had three oaks initiating that walk in our community in downtown.

Empire Theater brings wonderful attractions to our city and I spoke to an Airbnb owner in downtown Belleville this past Friday and without the success of the Empire Theater and our summer driven events it would be a lot quieter for the Airbnbs and we have three registered downtown and it’s no surprise or no secret that there’s more.

They just went through the pandemic and all the other challenges I touched on. When things are all the parts are moving, it’s a beautiful spot to be. The city gives downtown $75,000 in kind services that means putting up barricades outdoor washrooms all of that stuff.

I’ve thought long and hard, had many conversations about this. I question the timing. Is it something that we could direct to the operating budget in February? It comes back to the timing of this.

…

If we could defer this and see where we could possibly find or look at reductions, we talked about adding two staff members.

This is a tough one because we need a vibrant community…

Councillor Sean Kelly

Councillor Chatten said the city has a positive obligation to support local businesses in the downtown:

I’m just going to keep it very simple. I think that we have a positive obligation to support the businesses that are in our downtown core. Revitalization, we’ve stood behind. We put numerous dollars towards that. We’re continually trying to drive traffic towards the downtown core. How can we expect traffic to go down and stay if they’re constantly being being pitted against with with fees and issues with parking? I just really stand firmly with there being 2-hour free parking downtown. I think that the business owners deserve it. I think that we need it as a City and I hope it has support and I would like to have a recorded vote.

Councillor Lisa Anne Chatten

Councillor Carr explained that the public survey indicated that taxpayers think parking should be self-sustaining:

We hear from time to time you know the comment that there should be free parking downtown. Well, nothing’s free in life. Somebody somewhere has to pay for that for it to be free for others. And we’ve got the picture there that it would cost around $806,000 which rough math based on on what I see here at the table you’d be looking at a 0.75% tax impact.

Honing in on the parking study itself … the consultants spent a considerable amount of time um consulting with the public and the survey was clear that the public felt that there should be more free parking – unless it required a tax increase – which when that occurred that priority fell way down on the list on that survey.

At the end of the day, the parking system should be set up that it’s self-sustaining and the consultant that did the work simply said this is what you need to do to increase your revenue to pay for your costs. Maintaining parking lots, as mundane as that sounds, is not cheap.

I know that the public is quick to point to other areas where you can shop and there’s free parking, but let me tell you that those businesses, through rent, are paying considerable amount of money for rent in order to maintain the parking lot in which people enjoy that free parking.

So again, somebody has to pay for that free feeling, if you will.

We have free parking after 5. We have free parking on the weekends. Many of the events that were were were listed off by by a counselor across the way there are events that happen in the evenings or events that are happening on the weekends that there is no paid parking. And so you’re talking about a very small window of time during the day where there is still that free option for 1 hour and after that there’s a small nominal fee to pay.

That’s not any different than many downtowns. In many other downtowns you’ll pay more than a dollar or $1.50 for that hour of parking.

…

It’s been said that there’s a perception that it’s unsafe downtown. Well, I would argue – is the perception real or is reality different from that perception? Because we can go a little bit ways to the to the east and look at the city of Kingston. – their downtown. They have crime. They have drug activity downtown. They have individuals that are suffering downtown. The difference is you don’t see it as much because there’s tons of people and it’s busy and there’s a blending. What you don’t see is the foot traffic in order to blend in with with what goes on. And so then people feel that if I’m the only one down here because maybe that only one store is open, I don’t feel safe, so I’m not going to go at all.

I’m saying all that to say that there’s an economic side to this that is outside of council’s control. And I don’t think shifting parking by one hour during the day, Monday to Friday, is going to be the silver bullet that deals with the economic issues down here and driving traffic. It’s about the stores. It’s about the restaurants. It’s about the attractions. It’s about when are you open? When are you going to open to get and capture the majority of the residents that have money to spend that want to that want to frequent a business? That’s really what it comes down to.

Councillor Paul Carr

I owned and operated small business in Quinte area for 25 years and I know small business people work morning till night every single day. That’s what I did. I opened my store 6 a.m. and closed at 12 midnight every single day. I worked Christmas day, New Year’s Day. Thanksgiving Day. Even on my birthday. So, small business is really important to our city. Small business brings our city vibrant, make it work. They need to be survived. And as we already discussed how much money they put in and invest in this business in order to make a living, pay for food and look after their children. I feel our downtown we’ve been talking about it I think many many years. I heard about it all the time and we need to help business in downtown area. So I would like to support to our free parking in municipal lots.

Councillor Margaret Seu

Mayor Ellis suggested delaying the decision to the operating budget and discussing a contribution like a Cash-in-Lieu of Parking Bylaw:

I’m just wondering if we had any discussion with the merchants of downtown or the DBIA that we could compromise on this somehow or get this figure. We have a tight budget and I’ll just be frank with everybody here. If it is almost a half a percent, there’s no way we’re going to get it under the 5%. I wish this would go to budget and maybe we could have staff could meet with them and and come up and maybe have a similar contribution like the Town of Tillsonberg or the City of Brockville.

I would support sending it to budget and staff having a meeting on this, but at the cost of 3/4 of a percent on your taxes or half a percent, I can’t do it with the way the budget is.

Mayor Neil Ellis

Councillor Kelly suggested an amendment to move the decision to the operating budget, but Councillors Chatten and Thompson denied considering it.

I can’t see it going to budget. We got the figures in front of us. Reality is reality.

We talk about a 5% increase. When I got on council a number of years ago, we were worried about a 1% increase or a 0% increase, now we’re looking at 5, 6 or 7%. The reality is, this is not a silver bullet. I never said it was going to be a silver bullet. All I’m saying is we need to make sure that our merchants stay viable downtown.

Yeah, we’re subsidizing the parking, but what do we not subsidize in this city at this point? There’s nothing goes on in this city we don’t subsidize it. Let’s face the facts. The taxpayers are paying for subsidizing – the parking if we pass it. They’re already paying for subsidizing our recreation, parks, our sports center, our soccer fields. No matter what what we do, our taxpayers subsidize it. So where do we cut it off?

That’s going to be up to you people. But we talked right now a 0.2% or a 0.38%. Now, somebody’s saying 0.75%. I don’t know where all those figures are coming from. In it here, it says 0.3% or 0.2%. That’s the figures I’m looking at. That’s the reality is we’re looking for a tax increase in this budget.

Yeah, we don’t know what the pre-budget approvals are going to be until budget. We do it for one, we do it for the other. But again, we have to look at it. You go to the Quinte Mall, somebody’s paying the taxes, somebody’s paying the the merchants. How many small retailers are in the Quinte Mall? Probably zero.

They come downtown where the rent’s reasonable, they can make a reasonable living. And here we are squabbling over a small increase in our taxes to keep them alive. They can’t go to the Quinte Mall, because they can’t afford to pay the rent. They can come downtown, make us a small boutique shopping. We don’t have the great big stores like the Quinte Mall does. There are small retailers with staff working, as Councilor Seu says, six and seven days a week. So, we’re going to squabble over a little bit of a tax increase for parking?

I’m sorry. I can’t imagine that, but you people will make the decision.

We need to be looking after the merchants, looking after the people that want them downtown, and encouraging people to come downtown, spend two hours. We got restaurants that are crying because maybe they can’t get people in and out in two hours. If you go to a restaurant, how many times do you sit past an hour in a restaurant? Almost everybody. Almost all the time.

So, come on folks, for a little tax increase. Let’s get with it. Let’s support these merchants.

Councillor Garnet Thompson

A large round of applause erupted from those observing the vote in council chambers’ gallery.