MONTREAL - Hundreds of Plateau business owners banded together Wednesday evening to oppose the borough council's new plan to raise parking meter rates and install nearly 1,000 more machines in the area.

The new parking meters are set to be installed in January, and will come with an overall rate hike, up a dollar to $3 per hour from the current $2.

Merchants from the St. Laurent Blvd., Mont-Royal Ave. and St. Denis St. merchants' groups united for the first time Wednesday at the Plateau Auditorium on Calixa-Lavalee Ave., in agreement new plan goes too far to discourage car traffic in the Plateau.

"I know St. Laurent Blvd. is dead," said Thierry Rouye, who argues his Zagat-rated restaurant has suffered enough.

Rouye, who opened La Porte restaurant on St. Laurent after he arrived from France in 2006, has weathered the storm of a tough economic climate, a 17-per-cent tax increase and months of construction on St. Laurent.

"New people outside of Montreal don't come now," said Rouye.

The city said it needs the money accumulated from parking meters to make up for a $2 million deficit.

Luc Ferrandez, Plateau Mont-Royal's borough mayor discussed plans for the new source of income last month, when the city of Montreal announced it would transfer parking meter revenues to the boroughs.

Ferrandez has often said his goal was to reduce car traffic in the Plateau.

The parking meter increase is unfair, said St-Laurent merchants' association president Gordon Bernstein.

"They want to restrict access to the Plateau. They want to put parking meters on all the residential streets, on all the commercial streets, and even streets that never had a parking meter before," said Bernstein.

Merchants Wednesday night argued there's a fine line between protecting citizens and destroying the appeal of the popular neighbourhood.

Many non-residents are choosing to go elsewhere, said Kevin Perreira, part owner of ACE Hardware on St. Laurent.

"We have to compete with big boxes like Home Depot... They've all got parking lots -- what we've got is parking meters at a high price," he said.

The merchants will bypass Plateau council, electing instead to air their grievances at Montreal city council meeting Monday at city hall.