Have your say on bylaw limiting recreational vehicles on Georgina driveways

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 6, 2015
By Heidi Riedner

Next week is your opportunity to weigh in on whether or not Georgina residents should be able to park their recreational vehicles in their driveways.

Keswick’s Dave Ostertag, who started an online petition last month asking the town to revise its bylaw and complaint procedure regarding parking recreational vehicles on residential properties, filed a paper version with 451 signatures on it with the town last Friday.

He also submitted a written delegation request to bring the matter before council at its Aug. 12 meeting.

Under the town’s current bylaw, three recreational vehicles and/or trailers may be stored either in a rear or interior side yard on lots less than an acre in size.

A maximum of six can be kept on bigger lots.

Boats may not exceed eight metres in length and must meet yard setbacks if they are larger than 2.5 metres in height.

But Ostertag, and many others, want not only the bylaw to be changed, but also the complaint-driven enforcement process so that it takes more than one person to complain to warrant a visit from a bylaw officer.

Others, however, feel the bylaw should remain intact to prevent neighbourhoods from “looking like a trailer park,” according to an anonymous letter circulated in response to the online petition.

Debate via social media also raised potential safety issues stemming from a plethora of play vehicles parked in packed quarters.