Are you a North Oakville resident fed up searching for on-street parking and paying the town $50 a month?
Would you like to be able to widen your driveway or add an extra parking spot?
Did you feel a sense of hope last summer, when town council directed town staff to “review and report on options for changing the zoning bylaw to allow for driveway extensions in North Oakville” by the end of 2021?
Too bad.
That six-month-overdue report has finally come to town council, and town staff have pushed off any changes for at least another year.
The report received by council at its planning and development meeting on June 7 says that looking at the driveway issue should wait.
It should wait until after the town’s parking strategy is completed. That strategy, originally due by spring 2020, is now forecast to be finished by the end of this year or early 2023.
Where will thousands of new Oakville homeowners park?
The parking strategy “is expected to provide recommendations that best manage parking conditions on-site and on-street while encouraging alternative transportation methods.”
After that, town staff say, they will look at options for North Oakville driveways.
“We initially called for this report to review options to amend the bylaw to allow for extensions in North Oakville since many residents are unaware that a permit is required and have proceeded with extensions on their own to meet their parking needs,” said Ward 7 councillor Pavan Parmar.
“I am hopeful that the results from the parking study will allow for modifications to the bylaw where appropriate.”
Those modifications could include changing the 2009 bylaw whose rules effectively limit North Oakville driveways to one parking spot, with a second parking space provided within garages.
The rules currently say that driveways may not be wider than the garage unless the driveway abuts a porch. In that case, the driveway can extend to the edge of the porch, to a maximum of one metre beyond the width of the garage.
Driveway widths are intended not to exceed about half of a property’s lot frontage.
But there’s no guarantee that next year’s staff report will bring relief to frustrated homeowners.
Further rules to “preserve soft landscaping,” along with options to increase enforcement of the current zoning bylaw, are promised for council consideration.
In defense of the existing bylaw, planning staff argue that it implements the vision for North Oakville as a community of pedestrian-friendly compact development with less reliance on private vehicles.
Rules for the community require developers to build less parking than anywhere else in Oakville.
Intentional parking woes in North Oakville
But, staff admit that continued reliance on cars, along with limited on-street parking, has led some homeowners to illegally widen their driveway or pave over their front yard to gain additional parking.
The report includes numerous photos of such driveway alterations.
