Living in a newly built subdivision in Scarborugh, residents of Pringdale Gardens Circle are regularly facing parking tickets on their own street. The families living here have found that their driveways are not long enough to host gatherings without their guests getting ticketed, sometimes they are even ticketed themselves.
Pringdale Gardens Circle was previously a school that was developed into a subdivision that now houses about 80 condominium townhouses. These newly built townhouses all have garages and some size of driveway but sometimes the driveways are barely long enough for one vehicle and the garages can only hold one vehicle. This means home owners struggle if the family that lives there has more than two vehicles, or they want to invite guests over to their home to stay with them for days at a time. Sometimes, even within the hour of parking on the street residents come out to find a $150 parking ticket on their windshield. For quite some time the residents have been willing to explore other options, including purchasing a parking permit so they don’t have to continue to pay parking tickets. In some cases, parking two vehicles in their driveway means they are blocking the sidewalk and that’s a ticket regardless if they are caught. For the first time in over a decade, in any part of the GTA, city council has approved an on street parking permit program where residents can buy permits applicable between midnight and 7 am. The council decided there will be 12 parking permits available for purchase, at this time. The council believes the home owners in this development are facing this unique parking difficulty through no fault of their own as the condominium townhouses were designed with limited parking space. They’re doing their best in a complicated situation, so the city is trying to make it easier for them. Many of the older homes in Scarborough have wide driveways and multi-car garages where there is more than enough room to park vehicles for all those who live in the home. The newly developed subdivisions, though, mean more homes are built on smaller amounts of land so they don’t have the luxury of large driveways and garages. Some of the members of council opposed the project as they believe it isn’t going to help out families, but rather encourage home owners to rent out rooms or portions of their houses in areas that are deemed residential. Michael Thompson, who is a member of city council, addressed the concerns of those who are opposed to this project. He mentions that this parking permit allowance should not be seen as the way things are going in Scarborough, but rather these home owners are in a very unique situation. They are not flat out allowing just anyone to park on the street and the project could be reviewed if it’s not working. This way residents are not coming out to surprise parking tickets and they are able to purchase parking permits for a designated amount of time. The stress of constant parking tickets as opposed to paying for a parking permit allows for residents to host parties and family gatherings without worrying people visiting are going to get parking tickets every time they come over. |
AuthorCharlie Dent Archives |