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pay parking

You may have to pay to park when you go skiing next winter. The municipality has committed $1 million in its 1999 provisional budget for paving day skier parking lots, and any lots that are paved this summer will become pay parking next winter.

You may have to pay to park when you go skiing next winter. The municipality has committed $1 million in its 1999 provisional budget for paving day skier parking lots, and any lots that are paved this summer will become pay parking next winter. "It’s possible some will be paved this year," Whistler Mayor Hugh O’Reilly said this week, but added the paving is a staged program. "We’ll start with the lots closest to the lifts. Pay parking revenues will be transferred to transit," O’Reilly said. The day skier lots are Crown land but there is a three-way agreement among the municipality, Whistler-Blackcomb and the Crown covering use and maintenance of the lots. Whistler-Blackcomb has always paid for snow clearing and management of the lots. The municipality will pay for paving the lots and revenue received when the lots become pay parking will be split between Whistler-Blackcomb and the municipality. Exactly what the percentages will be is under negotiation, however the municipality would use some of its revenue to help pay for the municipal bus system. Paying for parking is consistent with the transportation master plan put together by the Transportation Advisory Group. The plan includes a number of incentives and disincentives to encourage use of public transit and reduce reliance on private automobiles. Pay parking is one such incentive/disincentive. Eventually all the day skier lots will become pay parking. O’Reilly noted that it should be possible to get more cars in paved parking lots than in dirt lots, because the lots can be better organized.