After continually receiving parking tickets throughout the year, a downtown business owner is growing increasingly frustrated with the limited parking options in the city’s core.

Stephanie Burnett is the owner of Belle Image, a hair salon on Peter Street; she says dozens of parking tickets have been issued to herself and her employees since the start of the year — including around 15 tickets issued to Burnett herself.

With limited time available for on-street parking, Burnett said she and her employees are constantly setting timers to ensure they can add change to the parking meter throughout the day, but — because they are usually busy with clients — a ticket has often been issued by the time they make it outside to pay.

“We can’t run out there every single second, when needed,” Burnett told OrilliaMatters. “I mean, as a hairstylist, I cannot leave somebody in here with chemicals sitting on their head to run out there.”

Although there are off-street parking options available, Burnett said she parks near her business due to safety issues downtown.

“I use street side parking because I refuse to walk down any of the alleyways after dark. Orillia is not a safe city any more — it’s unfortunate, but it’s not,” she said. “I’m a single woman. I’m not walking down an alleyway. I’m not walking two blocks to my parked car.”

Burnett said she has already had unsafe interactions while running her business.

“We’ve had inebriated people banging on our door at night, so there’s no way on earth that I am going to walk unsafely down a street. I’m just not putting myself in that position, (and) I’m not putting my coworkers in that position,” she explained.

“Nobody that works downtown should be in a position where they don’t feel safe.”

Burnett said it costs $15 per day to park next to her business, a number that climbs dramatically when she receives a parking ticket.

“I charge $25 for a haircut, so if I pay $15 a day, that’s almost an entire haircut,” she said. 

With extensive construction taking place downtown, and the city’s recent move to increase on-street parking rates, Burnett worries downtown businesses will lose shoppers, as well.

“It has prevented people from wanting to even come down here and explore,” she said.

“Our park is torn up. All our attractions are gone for the summer. Our businesses are struggling as it is, and it’s costing me $15 a day to park down here,” she said. “It’s ridiculous, like we are spending so much of our hard-earned money on the machines.”

Moving forward, Burnett hopes to see the city provide more options for business owners.

“I’d like to see reasonable parking prices. I would like to see our businesses be able to park for free, at least one parking spot,” she said. “I would really like to see them (not) focus so much on expired meters, as much as people who are utilizing our handicap parking spots.”

Mayor Don McIsaac said he is open to working on solutions, and he said everyone should feel safe while working or shopping downtown. 

“Obviously, we want all residents to feel safe in their environment and be able to go about their business without feeling like there’s anything bad going to happen,” he said. 

“We’re certainly open to any options. We understand that downtown businesses are a vital part of the economy, and we want to, in any way we can, encourage them and make them successful in their business.”

The mayor said he has reached out to the Downtown Orillia Management Board regarding Burnett’s situation.

“We’ll certainly reach out to the DOMB to see if they have any ideas that may help everybody here in this situation,” he said.