Striving to strike a balance between keeping streets accessible to shoppers while clamping down on illegal parkers, has been an ongoing challenge for the downtown parking committee.
At the Jan. 15 council meeting, Coun. Fred Neale requested a review of the parking situation on Albert Street East between Front Street and Ormond Street. Public works and community services director Geoff Holman was directed to prepare a report to be reviewed with businesses, property owners and the downtown parking committee.
Implementation of the new downtown parking strategy has elicited complaints from mainly seniors and business owners, whose customers sometimes struggle to find spots.
As a result, staff recommended making the following changes to the downtown parking strategy:
To modify the six spots in front of 18, 24 and 26 Albert Street so that the west most two spots are designated handicapped and the remaining four have two-hour free parking.
To remove two 15-minute parking spaces on Sullivan Avenue in front of 2 Sullivan Ave. and change them back to two-hour free parking.
To amend the parking permits to allow two plates per permit and require a hanging tag in each registered car.
To extend the current downtown on-street parking restriction from Monday to Friday to seven days a week. This request came from merchants whose businesses operate daily, including weekends.
To modify the downtown on-street parking restriction from two hours free per spot to two hours free in the downtown area per calendar day. This would prevent parkers from watching for enforcement officers and moving their cars to a different free spot every two hours.
The updated parking strategy, presented at last week’s council meeting, prompted Coun. Jim Handley to declare that tougher enforcement is required to prevent illegal parking.
“We need to tow vehicles that continuously ignore our laws,” he reiterated.
Handley has called for towing in the past, and said that illegal parkers “look at a $25 fine and know their parents will pay it. Most municipalities tow cars,” he continued. “We don’t. When you make it a deterrent and it’s an inconvenience to them, they learn a lesson. We are too lenient. We need to make it known that we mean business when it comes to parking downtown.”
“We do tow vehicles fairly frequently,” said chief building official Jason Simpson. “I’ll be the first to admit that enforcement has been relatively relaxed but we have stepped it up in the past few weeks. It’s a struggle we have dealing with the manpower we have. The first step is always ticketing, but then we have the next step of towing.”
“Some of the changes we have implemented are to try and make it easier for them to enforce bylaws,” stated Mayor Terry Ugulini.
The downtown parking committee is made up of Ugulini (ex-officio), Coun. Anthony Longo, Coun. Ken Sentance, members of senior staff, one bylaw officer, and at-large representatives Serge Carpino and Marsha Coppola, both of whom are business owners in the downtown.
