NDG business owners frustrated with new parking meters: ‘People don’t want to come here’

“No to parking meters without negotiation.”

That’s the message on one of the many signs outside a veterinarian clinic in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

The clinic, Ophtalmo Vétérinaire, says it was nor consulted on the borough’s plan to install parking meters along parts of Sherbrooke Street West.

“We got a letter from the city a few months ago saying that it was going to be installed and that there were going to be some meetings for stores in the area that would want to talk about it or go against it and everything. But when the meeting started, it was already voted,” explained Louise Provost, the chief receptionist at Ophtalmo Vétérinaire.

“It’s very hard on the business. Very. People don’t want to come here anymore because of it.”

The initial plan had been for 447 parking meters to be installed between Grand Boulevard and Claremont Avenue. Following backlash, the borough scaled that back to 250 parking meters. They were installed a few weeks ago.

Business owners in the area say they and their customers are feeling the impact.

For Döghaus pet supply store owner Evelyn Couture, the newly added parking meters are already causing confusion for her clients attempting to park in front of her business.

“I have customers that just want to come in, drop their dog off and go out,” Couture said. “It’s like a two-minute transaction. And the same for picking up sometimes. They really don’t want to pay whatever it’s going to cost, go through the five-minute hassle to pay to come in for a two-minute interaction. It’s very frustrating.

“I was pretty shocked because we hadn’t been informed really about that news, and it does affect our business.”

Döghaus customer Jojo Zimmerman says the situation was made even more confusing when she tried – unsuccessfully – to pay for parking using the app. She received a message saying there was no parking all day — from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“Why the meters? It doesn’t make sense,” she said.

She’s not the only one having issues, according to Couture.

“I think the parking meters have been live since last week, and as of this morning, there’s two customers came in saying that they couldn’t pay for the parking,” she said. “So this is a new development. I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s a glitch. I was told that I need to contact someone in the council and find out what’s happening with that.

“I wish they would just reconsider.”

In a statement, Snowdown district city councillor for the Côte-des-Neiges–NDG borough, Sonny Moroz said: “We recognize that not everyone agrees with the final outcome, and we respect that. We remain committed to working with those who continue to have concerns, which is why we’ve asked Biz NDG to continue engaging with merchants and monitoring the impacts.

“We believe in consultation, collaboration, and finding practical compromises. While no solution satisfies everyone, we believe we found a balanced approach that supports both the commercial vitality of Sherbrooke West and the needs of the surrounding community.”

But merchants say they still aren’t convinced and worry about the impact the parking meters will have on their businesses in the future.

“I think it’s going to kill a beautiful street with a lot of nice stores,” said Provost.

“It affects not only our clients, but also the employees that come in the city, that work outside of the city or further, that have to pay meters all day. It’s hard. Everything is so expensive now.”