'We have no other choice': Stouffville changes parking rule after residents complain

Town passed exemptions to the three-hour parking bylaw on Hoppington Avenue, Dougherty Crescent and Jamesway Crescent

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 16, 2024
Simon Martin

If you drive around Stouffville, at night you will be sure to see cars parked on the small patch of the driveway between the sidewalk and the road. Hoppington Avenue resident Chrys Singh is one of those residents who has parked his car in this spot for years.

“We are parking like this because we have no other choice,” Singh said. It had never been a problem for the five years he has lived in Stouffville -- that was until early December, when his street was blitzed with parking tickets.

“I had never got a ticket since I moved here and I'm parking the exact same as I always have,” he said.

The problem with houses on his street is the single-car garages are too small to fit that vast majority of cars into.

“My garage is spotless. We can't fit a car in the garage,” he said. “My neighbour has two Teslas. You can't fit those cars in the garage.”

He wasn't the only one on the street upset by the ticket blitz. Faye Costoulas has lived on Hoppington Avenue for years, and said residents “had issues in the beginning, when they were coming to ticket us.” That was 16 years ago, in 2008.

Costoulas said the problem was how the street was designed, with the side of the street with homes with two car garages were also without a sidewalk.

“We have no choice. We have two cars,” she said.

Costoulas said after the initial confusion when the street first opened up, the town gave residents an exemption. She said they were told they were allowed to park in between the sidewalk and the road as long as the rear tires are on the very end of the curb.

“They haven't bothered us for 16 years,” she said.

The residents took their concerns to Ward 3 Coun. Keith Acton and the town acted swiftly, hosting a special council meeting Jan. 2, where they voted to give Hoppington Avenue a special exemption from the three-hour parking limit.

It turns out Hoppington wasn't the only street in town with this issue, with special exemptions on the three-hour parking limit also given to portions of Dougherty Crescent and Jamesway Crescent.

While council passed the changes at the special council meeting, Ward 6 Coun. Sue Sherban raised concerns about the process as there other streets in town with the same challenges and said the town should take a more comprehensive look at parking.

“Parking is an issue in our town and it will always be an issue,” she said. “We just don't have the space for cars in some of these subdivisions.”

Mayor Iain Lovatt said changes on these streets wouldn't preclude changes to rules on other streets moving forward.