Council defers decision over resident-only parking at Georgina beach

"Unfortunately, deferring to a staff report doesn’t give them any direction,” said Deputy Mayor Rob Grossi, who tabled the motion

Yorkregion.com
April 4, 2019
Heidi Riedner

Deputy Mayor Rob Grossi had hoped council would direct town staff to consider a trial run of resident-only parking at De La Salle beach this summer to address repeated concerns raised by locals regarding Georgina’s busiest park.

His motion to that effect tabled this week, however, was deferred until a staff report already in the works on the issue of Georgina’s overcrowded beaches in general gets tabled at council April 17.

“I believe that the residents were very clear that we (council) need to set direction,” Grossi said on the heels of council voting in favour of the deferral requested by Ward 5 Coun. Dave Harding, which, under procedure, trumps the motion and is “not debatable.”

Harding asked for the deferral because he said there are other areas being looked at for resident-only parking, such as Holmes Point in Pefferlaw.

The report scheduled for April 17 is a result of a review prompted by numerous concerns raised about overcrowding at Georgina’s public beaches last year. Complaints ran the gamut from blocked roadways to cars parked illegally; safety concerns over stalled lines of traffic waiting to get into full lots; and from excessive garbage to the "disgusting" state of the portable toilets at Holmes Point.

Tagging and towing of vehicles, resident-only parking and/or beaches, beefed up garbage, bylaw and police patrols and shuttle service to beaches were all floated as possible solutions to be further investigated under a comprehensive strategy.

In light of that, Grossi said he felt it was important to raise the parking issue specific to De La Salle because it may not necessarily be included in the report without council direction to do so.

“Unfortunately, deferring to a staff report doesn’t give them any direction, and I think council direction is important, especially on such a huge issue to residents," he said.

Mayor Margaret Quirk, who said she doesn’t disagree with looking at the idea of a residents-only parking lot, added it makes more sense, however, to look at it with the report that staff have been working on.

“If it hadn’t been deferred, it would have been defeated,” Quirk said, adding her statement was the result of individual conversations she had with members of council regarding Grossi’s notice of motion tabled March 27.

“As chair of the meeting, my concern was that the motion, if defeated, would have caused that topic not to be able to be brought forward in the April 17 meeting discussions … (and) I wanted to ensure that this topic could be discussed as part of the report coming to us in a comprehensive manner."