If the city of Montreal has its way, you'll be spending more on parking meters in certain parts of the city.

Montreal city councillors have voted unanimously to go ahead with a pilot project on variable parking rates.

Independent councillor for Snowdon Marvin Rotrand along with his counterparts in Rosemont and the Plateau Mont Royal put forward the motion.

"We're going to emulate San Francisco. We're going to have a system where parking rates go up and down according to demand," Rotrand told CJAD 800 News.

The pilot project should begin at the end of the summer in certain parts of town, such as downtown and the Plateau.

Parking authority Stationnements de Montreal is supposed to hand in a report in September, which should determine how much such a measure would cost to implement, hor much rates would go up and down and where.

Rotrand said he realizes merchants are concerned about the impact on business but that they also felt the same way five years ago when the $3.00 hourly parking meter rate was introduced.

"We had the same knee-jerk reaction, everyone claimed downtown would be killed, there would be no business, nobody would come there," Rotrand said.

"The reality of the situation is the rates must be too low because you can't find a place to park."

Photo: CJAD 800 News