Pelissier parking garage documents come with hefty $14K fee

City of Windsor staff say it will cost nearly $14,000 for downtown business leaders to obtain documentsoutlining council's controversial decision to convert retail space into parking stalls on Pelissier Street.

The head of theDowntown Windsor Business Improvement Association filed a request for the documents, hoping to get answers to why the city booted store owners from the parking garage to make way for more parking.

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"It's excessive," said Larry Horwitz, chairman of the association. "To put a $14,000 bill (on it), it makes you feel like there might be something being hidden here."

In aresponse to the freedom of information request, city staff say the work will require "a lengthy manual search through a large number of files."

The city asks for $6,836 up front to get the request started, which is half of the total bill of $13,672. Horwitz says the association is trying to work with the city to narrow the scope of the request and possibly reduce the fee.

He is also getting calls from businesses offering to help pay for the documents.

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"They feel it's important for the city to be transparent and above board, so a lot of people want to help out on this," he said.

A previous freedom of information request revealed city staff use 190 parking stalls, which equals about half of the total spaces in Pelissier Street garage. Staff pay a reduced rate that works out to about $1 a day for parking.

City staff later confirmed staff use 170 of 350 parking stalls at the reduced rate.