Parking regulations just became a little more relaxed for downtown developers.

At Monday evening's city council meeting, members passed first and second readings to zoning amendments downtown.

The changes mean developers now have a 300-metre radius (rather than 100 m) to find their required off-street parking spots while those re-developing older buildings in the core commercial zone will no longer have to find off-street parking.

The changes also establish areas for community signs at the bottom of Two Mile Hill and at the intersection of Mountainview Drive and Range Road with the zoning of the downtown north area changed to mixed use commercial 2 from service commercial to encourage more mixed development in the area.

The zoning of the 400 block of Wood Street was also changed to mixed use commercial 2 from mixed use commercial to bring a number of structures into conformity.

While the parking changes come out of issues that arose last year for two developments, where parking was difficult to locate, Coun. Doug Graham brought forward further parking issues last night when the proposed

changes came up for discussion.

He questioned what process there is in making other parking changes around town.

"There doesn't seem to be a process," he said, arguing that some seem almost arbitrary.

He pointed to an example of a couple of businesses downtown where up until last year there was unlimited parking. Then, suddenly, that changed, he said.

"What kind of hearing process do we have or what kind of process does council even have for input in this or the businesses impacted?" Graham wondered aloud.

While he took issue with any "arbitrary" changes in parking, he also said he was pleased to learn earlier that the city will be doing a study on parking.

"Hopefully we'll have some of these questions answered," he said.

Mayor Bev Buckway later noted she knows of one case where a request for parking changes was made and a letter seeking input on it was sent to nearby property owners.

Coun. Dave Stockdale also noted the work of the city's traffic committee in making such decisions.

"It's not necessarily a public committee as such; it does take input from the public and then the committee's set up involving various planning, bylaw (officials) and as these questions come up, we will lead and make a decision on that," said operations manager Brian Crist, who was filling in for city manager Dennis Shewfelt.

"So it is an internal process, but the public feed into it."

Coun. Jan Stick was absent from Monday's meeting.