Local business creates online petition to keep parking spots

July 23, 2020 · 0 Comments

Written By ALYSSA PARKHILL

The local business community has launched a petition to keep parking spaces available in downtown Bolton.

Mona Nasiri, owner of Bolton Pharmasave, began an online petition last week to get the Town of Caledon to hear the collective voices of the business community regarding parking in the downtown core of Bolton.

The Town has recently toyed with the idea of eliminating all parking on the west side of Queen Street, which Nasiri says will be detrimental for local businesses and will impact the number of customers shopping in the downtown area.

“Last week I had two people from the Town come in and they said they wanted to talk about the future plans for downtown Bolton. They asked if I noticed that they’ve already taken a few parking spots, and I had noticed,” said Nasiri. “I think it definitely impacted the business, but it’s for the safety of everybody and that’s fine. But they went on to explain their future plan to get rid of all parking on our side completely. I can only give up so much.”

Parking became limited when the Town developed a more efficient way of keeping traffic moving in the downtown core, with new road lines and directions. To make this happen, some parking spots had to be given up.

Though there is available parking at Tim Hortons and the municipal parking lot, many of the local businesses rely on the road parking space for their customers.

“The majority of my patients and customers, they’re elderly or mobility is an issue for them, and they’ve already said they don’t know where to park and it’s really far, or hard for them to walk, especially when it comes to the heat, rain, snow or ice. It’s quite the distance for them,” said Nasiri. “It is quite inconvenient.”

Nasiri decided to put matters into her own hands, after hearing from other local businesses around Bolton, who agree that taking the parking away completely will greatly impact their business.

Rosa Alvarez, owner of Mille Notte, a local lingerie shop located in downtown Bolton, has also started a petition to create more awareness around the issue.

The Town clarified this week that eliminating all parking in the downtown core is not a final decision, but remains in conversation for the future. Nasiri is trying to steer that conversation into another direction.

“We don’t want to have an empty downtown. We want to support a healthy downtown, a beautiful downtown, where everyone feels comfortable and safe to come to,” she explained. “When they took away the couple parking spots, nobody told me about it. They just changed it.”

Peel Regional Council approved a week-long project that allows all-day on-street parking in downtown Bolton on June 27. The program began on Wednesday (July 22) and ends on July 31, in order to gather data on whether all-day parking proves safer. The project included new road markings in the downtown core, including new and specific turning lanes, and hazard planters on the roadway to improve traffic safety. Check our story on Page A5 for further information on that initiative.

Nasiri’s petition has hit almost 80 signatures, and Alvarez’s has reached over 150.

For more information please visit Bolton Pharmasave or Mille Notte Facebook page, or learn more at peelregion.ca.