Winter parking restrictions amended in Georgina

YorkRegion.com
Dec. 1, 2016
Heidi Riedner

Move it or the town is going to lose it after major snowstorms in Georgina.

Plowing through powder and not around parked vehicles is the driving force behind a recent amendment to regular winter parking bylaws passed last month.

While parking is already not permitted on all town streets from 2 to 7 a.m. between Nov. 15 and April 15, residents are now required to remove all parked vehicles from town roads when a “winter maintenance event” is declared.

That means all parked vehicles are to be removed from the streets immediately, and kept off, until the declaration has been lifted.

The measure will help the town’s operations department perform snow removal, sanding and salting in a more efficient and quicker manner after a significant snow storm and also provide quicker and safer road access for emergency vehicles, according to the town’s communications department.

And just how does one know when the white stuff constitutes a townwide declaration of a “winter event”?

Same way you check for bus cancellations.

Notices will be aired on 680 News and 1010 CFRB Radio in addition to being placed in the News Alert section on the town’s website (georgina.ca), on the town’s electronic signs (located beside The ROC and The Georgina Ice Palace), on the town’s Facebook page (Town of Georgina) and Twitter account (@georginatown).

SIDEBAR

Georgina’s roads department clears 664 kilometres on the municipality’s 395 roads under a $1.2 million annual winter maintenance budget.

Main arterial roads, such as Woodbine Avenue and Ravenshoe and Old Homestead roads, are plowed by York Region, while Highway 48 is handled by the provincial Transportation Ministry.

With a budget just shy of $300,000, the town’s parks and facilities division clears 75 km of sidewalks, 25 parking lots, 31 crosswalks and five YRT bus shelters.

Georgina is ahead of the curve in the region after it equipped all of its plows with GPS technology at the beginning of the 2015-16 winter season.

While the operations department was considering the popular online tool “where’s my plow” for residents at the same time, that initiative may still may be a few years down the road.

For more information, visit the winter maintenance webpage at georgina.ca or call the town’s operations department at 905-476-4301 ext. 2232.