Tourists in Elora will have to pay for parking in 2026

Tourists in Elora will have to pay up if they want to park in the downtown core. CTV’s Karis Mapp explains.

Tourists will have to pay to park in downtown Elora starting in 2026.

The new rule goes into effect on Jan. 5.

Drivers from out of town will be required to pay up to park between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Elora is increasingly becoming a tourist destination and town officials said there’s not enough parking in the downtown core to accommodate both residents and visitors.

Details of the plan were discussed at Monday night’s council meeting for the Township of Centre Wellington.

“With the continued enforcement and then the roll out of parking, really, it is to maximize the utilization and get that turnover desired to give everyone ample opportunity to get downtown and experience what we have to offer,” said Adam McNabb, the township’s managing director of corporate services.

There will be two parking zones for out-of-towners. The first will have a three-hour time limit, while the other will allow for parking for up to 24 hours.

Staff suggested a $3 fee per hour, with a daily maximum of $15 in Zone 2. Kiosks would also be set up downtown where people could pay for a parking spot.

“There will be a large amount of signage at the downtown core where people would be able to scan a QR code,” explained McNabb. “We’ll also have kiosks about the downtown area for those that don’t have access to a smart device.”

Exemptions would be made for those who live or work in Central Wellington, as long as drivers registered the licence plates of up to two vehicles online and followed the posted time limits.

Council said the exemptions could not be shared, transferred or used by other unregistered vehicles.

The change is expected to generate roughly $300,000 in the first year.

“Any future revenues will be dedicated to a reserve fund for future utilization to support parking and other infrastructure needs within the downtown core,” McNabb said.

Residents of the area, like Melissa Lloyd, said they think it’s a good idea.

“That supports the local economy which is great. It supports all of our road construction, our bridges,” she said.

“Probably in your bigger city centres that you’re traveling from, you do pay for parking anyway. So it’s not something that we shouldn’t be doing and encouraging [people] to support the community.”

However, some out-of-towners are still unsure.

“I think it kind of discourages accessible access to the community,” said Guelph resident Kaija Wassermann. “Maybe it is a small amount, but there’s a lot of people that every dollar counts and enjoying the community shouldn’t be limited from that.”

Local business reaction

Some Elora business owners raised concerns about employees who commute in for work.

“A lot of people that work here are not from Central Wellington,” Paul Lachowich, director of operations at Elora Distilling Company, said. “They’re from Kitchener-Waterloo [or] Guelph. So we had to figure out a way that they wouldn’t have to pay to come to work.”

Township officials took that into consideration and amended the parking situation so that qualifying business owners would also get a free pass for up to 10 employees who live outside the town.

Avalon Reid is the manager of Elora Bread Trading Co.

She said her customers have voiced their frustrations with parking as a whole in the area.

“Some of them are upset in general because of the amount of tourism because [this area] is not really meant for this many people,” she said.

Other business owners, like Erika Montero, are on the fence about the upcoming changes.

“Initially, my thoughts were that it sounded really great in theory, on paper,” said the owner of Blackbird. “Then we started discussing it with our locals and customers and after all of that, I started being a little bit more concerned.”

She said having tourists pay doesn’t address parking capacity as a whole in the community.

“Hypothetically, the revenue should go towards creating more spaces. You can’t really create more spaces in a town like this. So, short of creating a five-story parking garage, which I don’t think is going to be popular, it doesn’t really solve the problem”

That’s a notion that was echoed by Lachowich.

“Right now, parking in Elora is tough, especially on the weekends,” he said. “So for a server who works here, who starts at two in the afternoon, they’re probably going to have to park four or five blocks away.”

Another worry for Montero is that out-of-towners will just take up space in other parts of the community.

“As a resident of a residential area really close to here, we already have issues with people blocking driveways, parking on lawns and taking up spaces that are not proper parking spots,” Montero said.