City council has identified the possibility of taking another step into the world of hi-tech to enhance enforcement of parking restrictions downtown.

Council has already approved the $58,000 for the purchase of new hand-held ticketing devices for 2012, and $7,000 for each year after through to 2015.

But it has also identified $120,000 to buy a new vehicle outfitted with the latest technology to monitor street parking: the autochalk technology designed to replace bylaw officers walking around chalking tires.

The city's 2012 capital budget, approved by council earlier this month with spending forecasts for the following three years, has the expenditure penciled in for 2015.

Bylaw manager Dave Pruden emphasized Thursday that identifying the expenditure in long-term financial planning is by no means confirmation it will happen.

"It really means we will look at it further,” he told the Star.

"If administration does recommend we go ahead with it, the end decision rests with council. They could like it, or say, ‘We've looked at it and don't like it.'”

The technology is something akin to a Google Earth Camera Car.

Cameras are mounted on a vehicle specially designed for the constant starting and stopping mobile bylaw officers would likely be required to do as they monitor street parking, according to information provided by one of the suppliers.

The cameras would record the position of each vehicle using advanced GPS technology. They would be able to produce photographic evidence indicating whether a vehicle has moved – right down to comparing the position of the air valves on the tires.

If the city, for example, wanted to monitor a two-hour parking zone, the enforcement vehicle would simply drive the designated streets at the normal speed – up to 50 km/h – to record the information. Repeating the exercise two hours later would reveal which vehicles had moved, and which hadn't.

If the city chose that route, Pruden said, it would likely implement an enforcement protocol requiring three drive-bys. That would reduce the chance of nabbing individuals who had left the area but returned to conduct further business.

Parking in a two-hour zone, he said, means having to leave the zone after two hours.

Moving your vehicle from one parking spot to the one beside it, or even down the street, doesn't count, Pruden said.

"The other thing people will do is go out and erase the chalk marks,” said the bylaw manager.

The new downtown parking management plan adopted by council earlier this year calls for an eventual expansion of restrictions on all-day parking in the downtown core, where there are no meters nor other time restrictions.

It's common-place these days to see all-day parking up and down Strictland and Black Streets, along Third and Sixth Avenues, and up and down Hanson and Hawkins Streets, to name a few.

Under the parking plan five to 10 years out, those areas and more have all been identified as two-hour zones without meters.

But Pruden insists the city is not just going to wake up one day and bring down the hammer.

The parking management plan recommends that before measures are undertaken to expand parking restrictions, the city must identify alternative long-term parking options provided by either the public or private sectors, he said.

The management plan also mentions the need to encourage the greater use of public transit before increasing restrictions, Pruden added.

Furthermore, it will be up to the council of the day to decide how to handle recommendations meant to take effect years down the road, Pruden pointed out.

When council was considering adopting the new parking strategy last May, members did get an ear-full from one rural resident.

The resident of one of the rural neighbourhoods who parks along the street all day reminded council that buses are not an option for him.

Besides, he said, as a parent, his vehicle is absolutely essential in getting his kids to where they need to go after school.

Eliminating all-day street parking in the years ahead is not only unnecessary, but would cause grief, he said.

Product information about the autochalk system indicates the technology bolsters efficiency 10-fold, is not slowed down by rain, sleet nor snow, and reduces bylaw officers' risk of repetitive injury strain.

The system also reduces the risk of confrontations between officers and angry ticket recipients.