Kelowna

It seems staff at Kelowna General Hospital are engaged in a new dance routine.

It's called 'The Two-Hour Parking Spot Shuffle."

Kelowna Council heard the news during an update on parking issues around the hospital.

Property Management Manager, Ron Forbes, says there is more traffic than ever before around the hospital and blames a lot of that on KGH staff.

"The staff will go park their vehicles, come out two hours later en mass and move," says Forbes.

"The parking is still a bit congested in the area and the traffic is increasing actually as the staff move their vehicles around from one spot to the next so they don't get ticketed."

Forbes says one possible solution would be to make the entire KGH zone a two-hour time restricted zone.

"If you're in the zone you can come in for two hours and after two hours you have to leave the entire zone and you can't park there again for the day. There are other measures like that we are investigating right now but it's not something we're ready to forward with a recommendation for implementation."

Councillor Gail Given said she found it quite 'bizarre' that every two hours, employees would be able to leave to move their cars.

"It's a morning coffee break, a lunch break, an afternoon coffee break and leave at the end of the day," adds Forbes.

The revelation comes six months after a series of recommendations were implemented to come up with solutions to the parking problem around the hospital.

The suggestions implemented came as a result of recommendations made by city staff, area residents as KGH.

Forbes says part of the parking crunch around the hospital should be alleviated by the end of the year with the addition of about 120 new staff parking spaces.

He says 50 of those spaces could come from the demolition of three houses at the corner of Abbott Street and Royal Avenue plus another 70 spaces that will come available at the Ethel Street parking lot once construction materials are removed and the lot levelled in the next two to three months.

Forbes says staff continue to monitor the situation around the hospital and continue to meet with KGH and the Neighbourhood Solutions Committee to evaluate how they are doing and come with other recommendations to improve parking around the hospital.