The Village of Radium Hot Springs unanimously approved Bylaw No. 416, 2015 at the regular Wednesday, December 16th council meeting with an option to amend the motion to regulate traffic and parking in the municipality’s future.

“As a general overview, I think it’s important to point out that the need for a parking bylaw was identified as part of our strategic planning session… and here it is,” said Mark Read, Village of Radium Hot Springs chief administrative officer. “The primary issue with our former bylaw was that it was very, very rudimentary. I think it was passed in 1991 so there was really just a lack of clearly defined regulation and a lack of tools for staff to enforce what we perceived as necessary for parking on the streets. This is really just a modernized version.”

He informed council that some municipalities offered similar bylaws that varied between 80 and 100 pages in length.

“So, I tried not to go overboard with details, but at the same time, I tried to give us tools and regulations to deal with some of the issues that we have been dealing with,” he explained. “The bylaws have been reviewed by a local bylaw officer and the superintendent, they both gave it the thumbs up. There’s a possibility that we may have missed some issues in here and I think, as time goes on, we can amend the bylaw.”

Council agreed that parking for commercial vehicles has been a challenge, but this will be worked on as a zoning plan for Radium is being developed in the new year.