Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Paid parking came back into effect May 1 for Jasper with some changes from last year, including a streamlined resident exemption process.
Last year, a credit system provided 500 hours of free parking for residential permit holders, requiring on-street action similar to how visitors would pay.
The resident permit program for this season now only requires a one-time registration process with no on-street action required.
鈥淚n a nutshell, everyone who had applied for a permit in 2022 was automatically renewed, so those permit holders should have gotten an email from HotSpot last week sometime,鈥� said Christine Nadon, director of Protective and Legislative Services with the Municipality of Jasper.
鈥淓ssentially, if you鈥檙e signed up for a resident permit, you can just park downtown in the paid parking zones and you don鈥檛 have to do anything, so you don鈥檛 have to use the app or tap the signs or anything like that.鈥�
Residents will still be required to follow the two-hour maximum for street parking downtown.
Some residents have suggested the municipality could simply exempt vehicles displaying the resident passes issued by Parks Canada.
However, Nadon explained that the goal was to get residents to register with HotSpot, the paid parking app, which is how bylaw officers enforce paid parking.
This also streamlines the system, and there are additional challenges with Parks Canada sharing personal information with the municipality.
鈥淲e think the system is pretty straight forward,鈥� Nadon said.
鈥淚t does require some access to technology, whether through your phone or a computer, but I guess residents can go to the admin office [to register].鈥�
The municipality has also converted the upper McCready Centre parking lot to resident parking only, except when in use by events such as the Jasper Farmers鈥� Market.
鈥淭here was just a sort of low usage from a paid parking perspective in 2022, so we thought we try something a little different, so you can park there all day if you鈥檙e a resident,鈥� Nadon said.
The lower lot will remain paid parking.
Nadon added that turning these lots into free parking for all would have had a negative effect on the nearby paid parking zones.
Paid parking has been expanded to the 700 block of Connaught Drive but only in front of businesses.
The 200 block of Connaught will also become paid parking, except for 15-minute drop-off zones in front of Nesters Market, as will the east off-street lot.
鈥淓ven though that area is not traditionally considered as being part of the central business district, [there are] still some pretty important businesses in our community that are operating there,鈥� Nadon said.
鈥淎nd in the sense of keeping access to parking equal and keeping our commercial areas paid parking is why [council] decided to add that new section there, so equity was sort of the principle behind it.鈥�
The two-hour parking restriction has also been removed for the paid parking on the east side of Connaught Drive with the train tracks.
Paid parking will remain in effect until Oct. 31.
Those who still need to apply for a residential parking permit can find more information at
