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Parking issues remain with accessible spaces, says local advocate

April 16, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

The quality of accessible parking makes the difference between people with mobility challenges participating in the community and being excluded.

Tamara Limebeer, a well-known Orangeville accessibility advocate, said during council’s April 13 meeting that improperly designed accessible parking spaces may prohibit wheelchaired motorists from safely exiting their vehicles.

As per the Accessibility for Ontarians Act, off-street accessible parking has to include an access aisle, which is the space between parking spaces. Type A parking spaces are at least 3.4 metres wide with Van Accessible signage. Type B parking spaces are a minimum of 2.4 metres wide.

Some of the issues Limebeer has found in Orangeville’s public and private parking lots include spaces that are too narrow and lack the required 1.5-metre access aisle. Some access aisles are often blocked or used as parking. Others have incorrect or are missing required signage.

In some parking lots, accessible spaces or their aisles have been used as a place where snow was pushed during snow-clearing operations.

Her presentation included numerous photos of accessible parking spaces at Orangeville locations.

“When accessible parking works properly, it benefits everyone,” Limebeer said.

She said the City of Brampton has a very successful accessible parking program. The “accessibility bylaw specialist” helps municipalities and businesses understand the standards and how to implement them, she said. That training has been offered free to other municipalities.

And that presents an opportunity for Orangeville, she said, and urged the town to invite the Brampton specialist to an accessibility committee meeting.

“Accessible parking may seem like a small thing,” Limebeer said. “But for someone with mobility challenges, it may determine if they can participate in the community at all.”

Mayor Lisa Post said town staff can’t order parking space lines to be redrawn on private property. But there could be an opportunity to work more closely with business owners toward improvements.

This is an ongoing component the town can work on, she said.

“As long as they have met the requirements that they needed at the time that building was built, then we have a problem where we can’t force them to change the size and width of their parking spaces,” Post said.

David Smith, the town’s CAO, said bylaw enforcement is aggressive in ticketing people who are illegally parked in accessible spaces. That aggressiveness works out to about 45 tickets monthly.

“They are very assertive at issuing those tickets,” Smith said.

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