The City of Penticton estimates more than 25,000 people travelled to the South Okanagan Events Centre complex on the weekend to attend events.
With the Penticton Vees game, Okanagan Fest of Ale, the Gun and Antique Show, Okanagan Symphony, hockey, lacrosse and the opening of the Cascades Casino — parking capacity was put to the test.
“We put a number of measures in place to be prepared for the anticipated volumes,” said Anthony Haddad, director of development services. “We are just starting to pull together information about the effectiveness of these activities. We are also getting together as a group to discuss how the weekend went and plan our next steps.”
The city worked with the tenants at the SOEC complex to plan for parking and traffic management during the events. They arranged for a free event shuttle, four flaggers to help with traffic management, as well as extensive education and awareness activities about available parking and travel options. The Cascades Casino also provided a free casino shuttle. All of the efforts were funded by the Cascades Casino.
According to the City of Penticton, some of the early findings include: the accessible parking area was full on Friday night including the additional 50 extra spaces that were added, four flaggers were scheduled between 4 and 8 p.m. on Saturday and were not required as traffic moved well. The free event shuttle was used by 46 riders.
Bylaw services issued the following notices on Friday and Saturday: 34 warning tickets for vehicles parked on boulevards or other unmarked areas, two tickets for vehicles parked illegally.
The City of Penticton said a few residents on Caribou Street expressed concern about spillover of event parking onto their street.
A parking study (December 2015) completed as a requirement for the development of the Cascades Casino showed that with more than 1,000-plus parking spaces on site, there is sufficient parking at SOEC for the vast majority of the year and on rare occasions where a major event is taking place, there are another 1,000-plus spaces in lots and on the streets within a five to 10 minute walk.
Citizens who would like to provide feedback about parking at SOEC can go to shapeyourcitypenticton.ca/parking.