Before it starts charging visitors for parking along the lakefront this summer, Sylvan Lake's town council is asking staff to examine outstanding concerns that residents still have.

 “We’ve had issues brought up to us by our residents about the pay parking program as it’s proposed and we need to make sure that we understand what those issues are and assess whether or not we can address them now, or is this a review that happens after the first season is implemented,” said Mayor Sean McIntyre.

Two of those concerns listed in a staff report involve churches and doctors' offices that are located within the town's residential parking district, where parking is only permitted for residents of that area.

As the plan currently stands, that would exclude visitors for church services, weddings, funerals and medical appointments.

According to the report, residents also have questions about limiting parking permits to two per residence, as well as non-resident employees parking on the street outside their workplaces.

During its meeting on Tuesday night, council rejected administration’s recommendation to review the program after the first year of implementation.

Speaking against the initial motion, McIntyre said he was uncomfortable with putting off such a review.

For him and many other councillors, the decision was about getting the program right the first time.

“We want to make sure … that we review what is going on to make sure that it’s rolled out as smoothly as it can be,” McIntyre said.

The town has been accepting permit registrations from residents since May 1.

Enforcement of the Visitor Pay Parking Program was supposed to start in mid-May. However, that was delayed in order to build the software system that would administer permits, as well as to build a database of town addresses.

Visitor-pay parking would only be in effect from May 15 to Sept. 15. There would still be free parking areas located one block from the lakefront.