MEDICINE HAT, AB — Parking is always a concern during the holidays, especially in dense locations like downtown.
However, one popular parking spot downtown will remain open for two hour free parking.
The Cottonwood parking lot between the Station Coffee Company and City Hall is back open, after being closed temporarily.
The lot was actually never meant to accommodate free parking, it was pass-holder only until a third of it opened up to the public because of major construction downtown five years ago.
The free parking wasn’t meant to be permanent, but the city never felt the need to change it back to pass holder only,
However, the Chokecherry parking lot was recently purchased at 403 Second Street SE, and all of the pass holders were offered a refund or alternative space.
The Cottonwood lot seemed like the perfect alternate location, so the city reverted the lot back to entirely pass holder.
The city notified businesses and drivers in the area, but some claim they didn’t receive any notice.
As a result, when the lot was closed off, the city received major backlash.
As of Friday morning, a third of the lot has turned back to free two hour parking.
“Over the last 24 hours we’ve had some conversations with a number of the business owners in the Second Street area,” says Grant MacKay, manager of land and business support for the City. “We agreed with them that a resolve at least on the interim basis is to return that lot back to temporary two hour free customer parking.”
“I’m pretty confident that what we’ve come up with at least for this Christmas season which is important to retail,” says MacKay. “That this is the right way to go.”
Two hour free parking will only be available in the lot until January 31, 2019.
