Earlier this year, the city enacted a plan to phase out the aging meters over a three year span.
Kelowna is accelerating its plan to phase out 900 parking meters downtown.
The city is replacing them with pay stations that are less vulnerable to vandalism while offering more payment options.
According to Parking Services Manager Dave Duncan, the old meters are frequently targeted by looters.
"Our staff are really focused on repairing vandalized meters on an almost daily basis" said Duncan. "So they're not able to focus on the usual work they would be doing like preventative maintenance for the pay stations and the facilities."
Earlier this year, the city enacted a plan to phase out the aging meters over a three year span. On Monday night, city council fast-tracked funding for the project so that it could be completed by next summer.
"It's going to be a challenge even to install twice as many pay stations as we originally planned this year" said Duncan. "But if you consider that they're spending a lot of hours everyday just fixing these vandalized meters, then it really makes sense to have them installing new meters instead of continually fixing the old ones."
