Georgina collects $25K in weekend parking fees

YorkRegion.com
July 9, 2015
By Heidi Riedner

Glorious summer weekends always leave residents and visitors alike jostling for position on Georgina’s public beaches, but also for parking and launching spots.

While most were honouring the town’s park and pay areas, the town’s bylaw department was out pounding the pavement and sand, handing out a number of tickets this past weekend for those who either didn’t want to pay to play or weren’t playing by the rules.

Approximately $25,000 in parking fees from the town’s seven pay and display parking lots was collected from non-residents July 4 and 5, according to the town.

Georgina residents park for free with a resident parking pass, but a few might have been rounded up out of the 187 parking infraction notices issued over Saturday and Sunday.

Most of those were slapped on windshields in the De La Salle Park area.

Bylaw officers also issued warnings in the areas surrounding Willow Beach, De La Salle and Holmes Point for offences involving alcohol, smoking and dogs.

Despite the enforcement and signage prohibiting parking and standing in beachfront areas, some continue to use town property as their own personal playgrounds.

On a number of occasions, vehicles pulled right up on the sand at the Franklin Beach area, for example, to launch or load jet ski watercrafts.

Some claim to do so because there aren’t enough public launch sites.

Others, such as one Markham resident launching a small fishing boat off Harry’s Bait & Tackle on Riveredge Drive, said parking fees for town lots make the $10 he paid to a private business a more economical choice.

The town, however, says there are many launch sites across Georgina to accommodate residents and visitors and assured residents there are enough officers within the department to ensure effective enforcement of town bylaws.