KITCHENER - People who want an exemption to park overnight in Kitchener will soon be able to do so online.

The City of Kitchener bans parking on city streets from 2:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. between Dec. 1 and March 31 every year. Overnight parking is allowed the rest of the year.

But the demand for overnight parking is going up - the city issued 17 per cent more overnight parking tickets this past winter. More than 11,000 of the $30 overnight parking tickets were issued in 2018.

When the city carried out a customer service survey in 2018, the inability to access services online was the second most common complaint.

Starting Dec. 1, Kitchener will allow people to get up to five exemptions over the four months that overnight parking is banned, by applying online on the city's website. Parking tickets will still be issued for illegally parked cars and vehicles parked on the street when the city declares a snow event, when all on-street parking is banned to accommodate snow plowing.

"I think this is a long time coming, and probably couldn't come soon enough for some people," said Coun. Paul Singh.

Kitchener hopes to add other parking services online this spring.

cthompson@therecord.com

Twitter: @ThompsonRecord