Charlottetown mayor against overnight parking ban extension

The mayor of Charlottetown is against a plan to extend the city's overnight parking ban to deal with snow removal, which councillors have unanimously supported.

Mayor Clifford Lee said due to the current bylaw, the police department has been ticketing cars even on nights when snow removal isn't necessary. He said an extension of that bylaw from 1 a.m. to 11 p.m. is unnecessary.

"Basically what I'm hearing is what I expected to hear," Lee said. "People are saying that, 'You know, is the city shutting down at 11 o'clock at night?'"

"If somebody was having a Christmas party at their home this weekend and the party went past 11 o'clock and people were parked on the street, under the legislation, a police officer could come by issue a ticket to the car and/or tow the car," Lee said. "Council should be setting the bylaws in place that make the most sense and as I said, at 11 o'clock at night, the city doesn't shut down."

Many homes don't have parking

Lee said he was against a blanket 11 p.m. ban on street parking during the winter. There have not been a lot of complaints about snow removal and he would rather see the bylaw only be extended on a case-by-case basis on days when there are snow storms. He said the city already has the power to order vehicles off the street any time of the day or night during blizzards.

"What needs to happen, to me, is we have the legislation in place, let's live with the legislation and let's have our management of the police department more strongly enforce the concept that the 1 o'clock parking ban will only take effect in times of snow removal or de-icing."

Lee noted that many homes in the city don't have parking and forcing people off the streets earlier will see more complaints on days when cars are ticketed despite no snow removal happening and more damage to lawns where people park instead.

At 11 o'clock at night, the city doesn't shut down.— Clifford Lee

"I think more common sense has to take place. The reality is there are a lot of homes in Charlottetown that do not have parking on site," Lee said.

"You'll find cars parked on people's lawns all winter long and that's caused major damage to the lawns. Then come spring time and the city's talking about beautification efforts and we have a bunch of lawns ripped up because that's where people have parked all winter."

The final vote on the proposed amendment to the bylaw will take place in January.

He said there will be problems with snow removal when there are a few days of snow in a row but that extending the parking ban to 11 p.m. won't solve that problem.

"I fail to see the logic in this change."

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