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Parking to be restricted to one side of street locally

November 22, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Parking on almost all roads in Orangeville will soon be restricted to one side of the street.

Town Council unanimously passed a motion on Monday (Nov. 8) to direct Town staff to update the appropriate bylaw to restrict parking to one-side, which will be implemented in the spring of next year.

This allows Town staff to order and install the appropriate signage, notifying residents of the one-side parking restriction, with the budgeted cost being $84,000, coming from general capital reserves.

Main streets such as Broadway, Mill Street and others with painted parking spots on both sides won’t be impacted.

“Where I have some concerns on some of the roads, streets, crescents, where this will be obviously implemented at some point… is really the density of some of the vehicles that exist in some of these subdivisions of our community,” said Coun. Joe Andrews.

“You’ll have some residents that happen to coincidentally have five vehicles, and they utilize [parking on] both sides of the road. What will end up happening, as we know, is by sheer numbers, one side of the road is now going to be completely full.”

Coun. Andrews noted he anticipates Council may be receiving complaints from residents with respect to the new parking restrictions.

“I’m just hoping that the implementation goes seamlessly without any repercussions,” he said.

In addition to a motion on restricting parking to one side of the street, Council also directed Town staff to prepare a report on enforcement of parking overstays, as Coun. Todd Taylor and Coun. Andrews both noted, they get several complaints on the issue.

At the Nov. 8 Council meeting, Coun. Taylor expressed concerns that restricting parking to one side of the street won’t solve the problem of vehicles being parked on a street for weeks at a time in the same spot. In fact, he said the changes may exacerbate the issue.

“We have people parking in the summer, in particular, for three, four weeks at a time and not moving their vehicle,” Coun. Taylor said. “I guess it’s within their rights to do so, but when you’re a homeowner and you’re staring out at the same old truck, that doesn’t move… for a long period of time, it’s disconcerting, right? It’s annoying, and it’s causing friction.”

Currently the bylaw for preventing people from parking in place for extended periods of time can be applied to derelict vehicles or vehicles that are imposing safety issues due to size or placement.

However, Coun. Taylor said he doesn’t feel that the current bylaw goes far enough in solving the issue.

“I would call it on a scale of 1 to 10 being a problem ­–­ it’s an 8.5,” he remarked.

Coun. Andrews said he gets a number of emails and calls with respect to individuals using the road as an extension of their driveway.

Council is anticipating a report regarding parking overstays around the same time the one side parking restriction is implemented, which will be the spring of 2022.

Consultation Results

The motion for the new parking restriction was presented following a recent consultation with the public, which shows support for the change.

During a Council meeting on March 21 of this year, Council directed Town staff to host a public consultation regarding the restriction of parking to one side of the street in Orangeville. This came following complaints from residents to councillors about the issue.

The consultation was hosted through an online survey, which ran from Aug. 19 to Sep. 17.

There was a total of 582 responses, with 84 per cent of them stating they feel that parking on side of the street to be very important. Just 6 per cent of respondents didn’t see it as being important.

Under different phrasing, 62 per cent of respondents said they feel strongly and/or support parking on side of the street, while 5.5 per cent strongly oppose any changes and would like the parking bylaws left as is.

In addition, results of the consultation show 14 per cent of respondents felt they had insufficient parking on their property for vehicles and 17.8 per cent of respondents had no garage.

All new subdivisions in Town have restricted parking to one side of the street since 1997 and the recent change to implement one-side parking on existing roads within Orangeville creates parking consistency, according to the report prepared by Town staff on the issue.

The report also notes that the new parking restriction will achieve the objective of facilitating safe two-way traffic at all times and improved access for emergency vehicles, such as ambulances. This is particularly important during the winter, when the width of streets is sometimes reduced due to ice and snow.

However, the one side of street parking restriction won’t be in place this winter, as it’s being implemented next spring.

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