Valladolid, Yucatán — Strong blowback from business leaders have compelled city officials to reexamine strict parking rules they recently passed.
The sweeping restrictions, banning parking from calles 39 to 31, 38 to 44, 40 to 42 and 37 to 43 starting Jan. 1, were passed without input from the business community, the local chamber president complained. In addition, vehicles are banned completely at the main park on Sundays under the new regulations.
Now city officials have agreed to sit down Friday with the advisory council that was formed as a sounding board for municipal policy.
Business leaders, such as Alfonso Rivero Flores, president of the local Canaco delegation, and Érika Beutelspacher de la Torre, of the Coparmex, said they were caught off guard by the measure.
At Friday’s meeting, business leaders will have an opportunity to present an alternative parking proposal that Rivero Flores said was previously ignored.
Ever since the City Council took to social media to announce the parking restrictions, business owners were been up in arms.
Merchants say the city plan lacks alternative parking spaces, while eliminating spots in prime areas. Both local drivers and tourists are inconvenienced, said Rivero Flores.
In addition, the municipal authority did not standardize prices in the few parking lots that are in the historic center, he complained.
Rivero Flores said that tourism is the most important source of income for Valladolid, as many families depend directly and indirectly on that sector.
“The merchants, restaurateurs, hoteliers and other entrepreneurs of the tourism sector have paid to promote Valladolid through our businesses, strengthening the economy of hundreds of families from Valladolid, bringing tourists on average spend two to three nights,” he said, demanding City Council repeal its own, freshly printed rules.
Source: Diario de Yucatán
