Richmond Hill residents want to park vehicles in front yards

Coun. Greg Beros proposes changing rules to allow residents to create extra parking space

Yorkregion.com
Teresa Latchford
Dec. 21, 2017

Dave Collings can park two cars at his Richmond Hill home.

One car fits nicely in the garage and the second fits in the driveway. But, like so many other local residents, it would be preferable to use more of his property frontage to create a third parking space.

“Many families have an older child living at home who can drive and needs a car for school or work,” Collings said. “It is a trend now where the cost of housing for the younger generation is too high, so they need to live at home. Well, they now need a place to park three cars.”

The way he sees it, allowing for an extra parking space on the front of people’s properties would keep more cars off the street, making it safer for pedestrians, drivers and the snow plows in the winter months.

The current rules require 45 per cent of a residential property frontage to be landscaped, not driveway.

It is a rule Ward 1 Coun. Greg Beros recently proposed be altered, to help residents solve some of their immediate parking woes. Armed with a petition with nearly 200 Ward 1 residents supporting the idea, he asked his fellow councillors to support his motion asking town staff to come up with appropriate wording that would allow for the amendment.

“We want to be seen as helping,” he told council. “I certainly get the issue, especially in the more intensified areas of town.”

He showed two photos, in one of which the resident paved the majority of the front lawn to accommodate more cars and stated this was not what he nor the residents were looking for. The second photo showed a resident who had laid interlocking brick, which is considered a hard landscaping feature, along the side of his driveway to give just enough room to park a second vehicle.

“The second photo is more of what we are looking for,” he said.

While Mayor Dave Barrow thought it was a great solution, other councillors were concerned about the timing of the proposal, since the town is currently working on an on-street permit parking system.

“Before we go ahead with this, I would prefer to do what we are already doing first,” Ward 4 Coun. David West said. “I say we defer it until after our on-street parking bylaw is set.”

Coun. Beros urged the council not to defer the discussion or the decision, because residents are dealing with this situation right now and it could take time to institute the other parking bylaw.

“Parking has been an issue for years and years,” Beros said. “Parking studies get bumped and bumped again for more important things and residents are done. They need help now.”

Council argued about setting a referral date for when the issue could be returned to the agenda. However, no firm date was set, since it was unclear when the permit parking project would be complete.

The issue will return to council following the completion of the permit parking project.