Town councillors have backed off on a proposal to charge for parking at Bronte Beach and Tannery Park.
Instead, updated signage, delineated parking spots and bike racks will be used to help manage demand at the two popular lakefront locations.
Last month, faced with a public outcry over a proposal to install parking meters and charge $3 per hour at the parks, councillors directed town staff to research other options.
While several councillors were enthusiastic about the idea of providing parking permits to residents and charging out-of-towners, town staff determined that idea to be too expensive to implement.
With over 74,000 Oakville residential properties, it would cost more than $350,000 to create and mail a parking permit to every household, Hania Ellison, the town’s manager of strategy and support services, told councillors at their June 21 meeting.
A permit program can also create an expectation of guaranteed parking, she added.
Parking “chaos” last summer, says councillor
Last summer’s lockdowns led a record number of visitors to seek relief and amusement at lakefront parks.
Almost 120,000 visits were made to Bronte Beach in 2020, up from 68,000 in 2019, said Ellison.
“There was a significant increase,” she said. “A lot of that could be related to COVID.”
With the rush of visitors came increased parking violations, with cars parked on the grass, on roadways and in areas that obstructed access.
Over 500 parking tickets were issued at Bronte Beach last year, up from 137 in 2019.
Ward 1 councillor Sean O’Meara is worried that last summer’s traffic jams and parking problems will be repeated this year.
“I still don’t see how this is going to stop 5,000 people from driving down to use Bronte Beach,” he said. “And then they show up, and there’s no place to park and then we have the chaos that we had.”
Chris Mark, the town’s director of Parks and Open Space, said bylaw officers would be on site, using a board to indicate when lots are full.
“Are vehicles still going to come down, and are they still going to attempt to use the park and are they still going to find a lot full?” he asked.
“Yes, so this is really about trying to mitigate the impact when that happens.”
Paid for parks already
Ward 2 councillor Cathy Duddeck said she was happy to see the move away from the paid parking proposal.
“The parks are built and funded by our taxpayer dollars,” she said. “It seems wrong to turn around and charge the very people who built the parks to pay for parking to enjoy them.”
She said that the recent move by the town to restrict parking on nearby streets to residents has addressed concerns about “overflow parking” in adjacent neighbourhoods.
Fellow ward 2 councillor Ray Chisholm added that he has not seen a shortage of parking in Tannery Park lots.
“I go down to Tannery Park about three times a day, and the issue is not one of parking,” he said. “The issue’s always been the traffic that’s coming down and the parking on the streets.”
But the newly imposed street parking ban is not universally popular.
Parking ban spread
Earlier this spring, with no public notice or discussion, the town created “special provision areas” or SPAs, where special parking rules apply.
Those parking rules prohibit street parking for anyone except residents, who have been issued free permits.
In place until October, the rules attempt to discourage people from parking on nearby residential streets to access lakefront parks.
Initially approved for dozens of streets, indications are that residents are keen to take advantage of preferred parking access.
In response to a question from ward 3 councillor Janet Haslett-Theall, Mark said new SPAs are “implemented after consultation with the ward councillors and the residents.”
Expressing concern that parking restrictions around Tannery Park will just push visitors toward Lakeside Park, Haslett-Theall suggested looking for alternate solutions to potentially sprawling street parking bans.
She suggested signage -- and possibly free evening parking -- could encourage visitors to use the downtown parking garage rather than parking on the street.
“We’re just worried about the circumference,” she said. “We limit on one street, and we’re just moving it up a block. We limit on that street, and we’re just moving it up one more block and over a block.”
“And frankly, it can go fairly far.”
Unfair to northern residents
Ward 6 councillor Tom Adams said he has heard from his residents concerned that these new rules are “an unfair application of parking prohibitions” that make it difficult for residents in the north of the town to use waterfront parks.
He asked staff whether overflow parking on nearby residential streets was an issue before the pandemic rush.
Tom Adams
Councillor Tom Adams
The question led Mayor Rob Burton to jump in with a political response.
“The SPA are council policy in this term of council, and it will take 10 votes to change those,” said the mayor.
While the new rules eliminate on-street parking by those who don’t live there, they may be creating some tension among residents.
A recent virtual meeting to discuss traffic and parking issues in the West Harbour area saw a question about misuse of the parking permits.
“How can we manage/prohibit residents from using their passes as an ‘extra’ parking spot and leaving cars on the road overnight and for days at a time?” was typed into the chat.
Jim Barry, the town’s director of municipal enforcement services, said there was never an intent to enforce a three-hour parking limit for those permits, but he would look at enforcing a 24-hour limit.
Streets where parking is currently banned to non-residents:
Near Tannery Park
- Forsythe Street (south of Lakeshore Road West)
- Burnet Street (Kerr to Forsythe)
- Anderson Street
- Walker Street
- Chisholm Street (south of Lakeshore Rd West)
- Wilson Street (south of Lakeshore Rd West)
- Kerr Street (south of Lakeshore Rd West)
Near Bronte Beach
- Harbourside Court
- Mississaga Street (south of Lakeshore Rd West)
- Seneca Drive
- West Street
- West River Street
- Timber Lane
Near Coronation Park
- Bayview Road (west of Belvedere)
- Bayview Road (east of Belvedere)
- Selgrove Crescent
- Westminster Drive (Lakeshore to Warland)
- Woodhaven Park Drive (Lakeshore to Selgrove)
Near Lions Valley Park
- Forest Manor Gate
- Upper Valley Crescent
- Zamuner Court
- Riverbank Way (from Riverbank Park south to street end at #1231)
