The Editor,
Re. “Letter: Why is pay parking at Port Moody’s Suter Brook?” (Letters, tricitynews.com, Nov. 24).
I am writing in response to the letter posted on your website from L. Schiffner. While we truly appreciate the feedback provided by the Suter Brook patron who wrote the letter to The Tri-City News, it is also important to point out that the information contained in the posted letter is significantly misleading.
Suter Brook Village has free parking. All visitors and guests of the village receive free parking for 90 minutes, provided that they park underground on P1. The 90-minute free period was implemented after taking into consideration the suggestions that came about as a result of several meetings with Suter Brook’s commercial tenants and strata representatives.
In order to take advantage of the 90-minute free parking period, all visitors are required to register their licence plate numbers using one of the many parking meters located around the site, or by using the free Hangtag mobile phone app.
Licence plate registration allows for the parking management company to efficiently patrol and ensure that parking stalls are adequately available throughout the day.
Parking along Brew Street has been set up as street pay parking as the street has typically seen abuse by contractors, delivery vehicles and other larger and oversized vehicles — taking parking away for short-term visitors who wish to quickly visit any of the street-level retailers.
The idea of paid parking (after a reasonable free period), as well as increased parking management, was a request that came to Onni directly from residents and tenants. The parking changes at Suter Brook Village were implemented after a year-long research and planning period, which, again, included consultation with members of the Suter Brook Merchant Association (office and retail tenants) and residents. Additionally, as a part of the research and planning for this project, Onni also met with the city, where the parking changes were tabled, discussed and reviewed.
We welcome continued feedback on this matter, and encourage both tenants and residents to write to us at commercialproperties@onni.com.
Zahir Rajani, Vice-President, Commercial Property Management, Onni Group
