Osborne has been known to be a place where parking can be difficult. Which is why changes are being suggested to the city.

The City Centre Community Committee has recommended to the Standing Policy Committee on Infrastructure Renewal and Public Works that the Winnipeg Parking Authority (WPA) review existing loading zones in Osborne Village to find whether there are some that could be changed or removed in order to make more space for parking. 

The WPA came back with a report that showed 16 loading zones that could be removed entirely, six that could be reduced in size and in hours of operation, and 10 that could simply have their hours of operation reduced.

The report found that these changes would result in 35 more parking spots during the day, 31 more in the evening, and 5 additional spaces on Saturdays.

Policy Analyst, Colin Stewart explains, "20 plus years ago when a sign was installed for a loading zone, they just put up a sign, and they didn't have times. If there are no times on a traffic sign it means that it's in effect 24 hours a day. As you can imagine many businesses close at 5 so obviously they have no need of the loading zone but because it's still technically a loading zone no one can use it for parking. So simply we went through and in 35 cases we found that we could simply add times that are the same as the business hours in those locations so people can use it for parking in the evening."

In addition, they looked at some cases where businesses had moved therefore causing the loading zone to no longer be necessary. 

The Winnipeg Parking Authority is now in the process of notifying nearby businesses and residents of the expected changes.

Stewart explained that they are now in discussion with Public Works to have the changes made, hopefully over the course of the summer.