Photo: Madison Erhardt

Kelowna has a downtown parking perception problem.

An in-depth survey and report on parking delivered to city council Monday indicated a number of perceived problems around availability, pricing and security which staff hope to be able to rectify with some out-of-the-box solutions.

Five "big ideas" were presented as possible solutions, however, James Donnelly with Urban Systems, says the ideas are just exploratory ideas that may, or may not make sense for the city.

The ideas for further exploration include:

• Variable rates - Where different parking rates could be charged based on time of day or high, or low demand areas
• Leveraging technology - Using real-time information to indicate where parking spaces are available, and providing several different options for payment
• Privatizing off-street parking - With the high cost of the city providing off-street surface and parkade parking, private investors or companies could be sought to take it over
• Alternative monthly pass program - As opposed to paying for reserved parking on a monthly basis, the rate could be on a daily basis
• Parking revenue to support alternate transportation - Parking revenues could be used to purchase land for sidewalks and active transportation.

However, Donnelly adds, the landscape is changing.

He says things such as car sharing, the impact of services such as Uber, self-driving and electric vehicles will all have an impact on parking in the future.

With the change in technology, the fact young people seem to be waiting longer to get a licence and with vehicle ownership seeming to be slowing, "20, 30 years from now when we ask how much parking do we need downtown, that is a difficult question."

He said there is a high cost, and risk associated with the city providing more off-street parking in the form of parkades and surface lots when the future need is uncertain.

Mayor Colin Basran, for one, says he doesn't want to see the city involved in building any more parkades.

"When I look at all the competing priorities we have in the community, do I want to tax our residents for another parkade? Or, do I wan t to tax our residents for arenas, or parks, of things they really want," said Basran.

"That to me is a huge win if we can get the private sector to invest in something. We can then use the funds to build something else that has way more appeal, in my opinion."