By Nicholas Carchidi
Nearly a year after drivers in Westboro and Wellington West began feeding parking meters for the first time, the debate over whether paid parking is helping — or hurting — the neighbourhood’s businesses has hardly disappeared.
More than 14,000 parking tickets have been issued in the area since the new system was introduced last September, according to figures provided by Bylaw Services. The data was recorded between Sept. 9, 2025 and June 30 of this year.
The changes, which took effect Sept. 2, 2025, converted roughly 700 on-street parking spaces along and around Richmond Road and Wellington Street West into paid spaces. Drivers pay $3 an hour in five parking zones covering Richmond East, Richmond West, Churchill, Wellington Village and Hintonburg.
The city introduced the meters following the Kitchissippi Parking Study, which found high demand for on-street spaces along the commercial corridor. The goal, city officials said, was not necessarily to discourage people from driving to the neighbourhood, but to increase turnover so spaces would become available more frequently.
The parking study found increasing pressure on curbside parking as Westboro and Wellington West continue to intensify. The city projects Westboro’s population will grow by 49 per cent between 2022 and 2036, while Wellington West’s population is projected to increase by 38 per cent. Ottawa as a whole is projected to grow by about 20 per cent over the same period.
The study also found that many newer developments in the neighbourhood provide little or no parking. In Westboro, 29 per cent of developments reviewed lacked residential parking, and 71 per cent lacked visitor parking. In Wellington West, those figures climbed to 50 and 78 per cent respectively.
A year after the meters arrived, however, local businesses and residents remain divided over whether charging for curbside space has improved the situation.
At World of Maps on Wellington Street West, store manager Megan Bystricky said much of the initial frustration appears to have subsided.
“There was a lot of push back toward the beginning of the implementation, but I haven’t heard many negative responses since the beginning of the year, said Bystricky.
Others remain frustrated. Westboro resident Bonnie Laurie said she has spent two decades doing most of her shopping along Wellington Street West and Richmond Road, but believes paid parking has made visiting multiple businesses more difficult.
Laurie said she has increasingly turned to online shopping or to businesses with free parking.
Those concerns aren’t new. When the meters were first introduced, local business improvement areas warned that paid parking could discourage customers from making quick stops at neighbourhood shops.
Two months after implementation, the Kitchissippi Times reported that almost 3,000 tickets had already been issued. At the time, Wellington West BIA executive director Aron Slipacoff said businesses worried customers making short trips would simply continue driving until they found somewhere they could park for free.
But not every business reports noticing an impact. Corrine, a manager at Home Hardware on Wellington Street West, said business has remained steady despite the changes.
“Our customers are very loyal, so we get a lot of recurring visitors picking up orders or shopping in and out and getting what they need,” she said.
There are signs, however, that some drivers are simply moving their vehicles elsewhere.
A small private parking lot near the Home Hardware serves customers of Pet Valu and Stubbe Chocolates. Staff at both businesses say drivers regularly use the spaces before walking to businesses elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
Anton, a supervisor at Pet Valu, said it happens daily and that the store owner has contacted the city about vehicles remaining in the lot beyond the posted 20-minute limit.
“People ask me all the time if they can park in our spots for many things, like going to other businesses,” said Anton.
Nataliia, a supervisor at Stubbe Chocolates, said she has also seen vehicles ticketed in the lot.
“I know the Pet Valu manager had called bylaw many times, and it makes sense to do that because it impacts our businesses greatly,” she said.
Winter created another complication. Bystricky said snow sometimes covered or reduced the available parking spaces, making an already limited supply even harder for customers to navigate.
“Those instances definitely impacted customer traffic in the store,” she said.
The city has argued that some level of vacancy is precisely the point of charging for parking. Its parking strategy uses occupancy to determine where paid parking should be introduced, extended or potentially removed. Where demand is high, pricing is intended to encourage shorter stays and leave spaces available for incoming drivers.
The city says it will continue to monitor parking usage and can adjust rates or hours based on demand.
The changes are also bringing additional money into the city’s parking system. Ottawa’s 2025 Parking Services Annual Report found parking revenues increased 8.8 per cent following a series of changes across the city, including the introduction of paid parking in Westboro and Wellington West and expanded paid hours in other neighbourhoods. On-street parking revenue increased by $920,000 citywide, while off-street revenue rose by $660,000.
Parking revenue is used to cover the operation and maintenance of the city’s parking system, with additional money supporting the Parking Reserve Fund.
For Laurie, however, the change has already affected how and where she shops. After two decades of regularly visiting businesses in Westboro and Wellington West, she now spends her time online shopping and at stores with free parking.
“After 20 years of doing 90 per cent of my shopping on Wellington and Richmond Road, I have to pay at every stop. I have supported about 20 establishments along this route and never had any difficulty finding a parking spot,” she said.