Shopping mall charges for parking, warns more lots could follow

A small strip mall in northwest Calgary has begun charging for parking and the manager warns her lot won't be the last.

The Stadium Shopping Centre is charging up to $5 for parking. The first two hours are free if drivers obtain a ticket from a machine.

Margo Sheppard, the shopping centre manager, said she wants to dissuade commuters from using the lot for all-day parking.  Dozens of cars in the parking lot didn't belong to customers, she said.

"If it's private property, it's private property. Whether it be your house or a business. You have no right to park your vehicle there and go to work and leave it there," she said.

The strip mall is located across the street from the Foothills Medical Centre, a hospital that charges for parking, and within walking distance of the University of Calgary, McMahon Stadium and the Banff Trail C-Train stop. The university charges for parking and Calgary Transit is rolling out a $3 daytime parking fee on weekdays at all of its park-and-ride lots.

Sheppard said it's the first time a shopping mall has charged its customers to park and it won't be the last. The days of free parking in shopping centres in Calgary are coming to an end, she said.

Janna Jordan, the store manager of The Cat House in the mall, said she is irate about the parking machines.

"It's totally ridiculous. This is a friendly little neighbourhood shopping mall and they had no right to come in here and turn it into some sort of money grab."

Shopper Yugo Kuehrt said shoppers might take their business elsewhere.

"If you find another place where you don't have to pay for parking and you get the same merchandise that's where you would go," he said.