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City officials are hoping to improve parking in residential areas of Calgary — and you can help.

A review of the city’s residential parking permit policy has been underway since the end of 2018, but is now entering a new phase in which citizens are invited to provide feedback on potential policy changes.

As spokesperson David Hill explained, the City of Calgary sought public feedback earlier this year on the issues drivers face when parking in residential permit areas.

“We used this feedback, along with technical expertise to develop possible options and informed recommendations,” Hill said. “The options we are presenting are a result of our work with Calgarians over the last few months.”

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The City of Calgary says some 40,000 residential parking permits are issued annually.

“The current program is very complex. There’s a lot of rules and it’s a big area and because of that there’s an opportunity to simplify that and make it more meaningful for the people it serves,” Hill said. “There’s issues of complexity, the type of signage used, how to have home workers visit their property.

“When a lot of the planning for the city was done, we didn’t envision the amount of traffic,” Hill said. Tweet This

“We can investigate ourselves and go to other cities and look at best practices there but in order for us to truly understand how it’s working for real people on the street we have to ask real people on the street.”

Citizens are invited to weigh in on which of the potential solutions they like by visiting one of two open houses:

Tuesday, June 18

5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association — 1320 5 Ave. N.W.

Saturday, June 22

9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Cardel Rec South in foyer across from library — 333 Shawville Blvd. S.E.

You can also provide input online before June 26 via calgary.ca/rpp.

The input gathered from this phase will help to develop recommended policy changes that will be presented to council in early 2020.

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According to the City of Calgary, there are 80 residential permit-only parking zones in areas throughout the city.

“I’m not happy with it whatsoever,” said Carole Bondaroff, who’s lived in Kensington for 42 years.

“Every street is different in this neighborhood. That’s been a bone of contention for years.

“You need a doctorate degree to navigate signage,” Bondaroff said. Tweet This

“Saturday it’s this, Sunday it’s that, Monday to Friday it’s this until 4 p.m., different from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. After 10, it’s okay, 7 a.m. it’s not. People are confused. It’s a lot of reading.”

READ MORE: Inner city residents fed up with Calgary drivers dodging parking tickets

“During the day, when people like me have physiotherapists or speech therapists coming to our house to work with our disabled son, those people are legitimately in our house for legitimate reasons and we find we have to do this juggling act of who has permit,” another Kensington resident, Ashley Bristowe, told Global News.

“We are having contractor work done in our backyard right now and our contractor has had $450 worth of tickets over the last while because he didn’t realize he needed to register each time. “

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