Coun. Howard Moscoe has proposed a one-time amnesty that would give homeowners with illegal front yard parking pads in the old City of York boundaries a chance to obtain a permit.
If homeowners couldn’t get their pads up to code, they would be issued a permit for street parking, and the city would come in, rip up the pad and put in sod, he said.
Many of the roads in Coun. Moscoe’s ward will soon need repaving, which is when the illegal pads are usually caught. “It’s an untenable situation ready to explode,” he said.
The city is going after illegal pads, Coun. Moscoe said, because they lead to flooding in people’s basements. But they also happen to add thousands of dollars to a property’s value. The situation has created tension between neighbours, he said.
Local resident Marlene Habib said she has always had a legal parking pad. A few years ago, when she learned that many of her neighbours weren’t paying for their pads, she stopped paying the annual fee.
Habib said the city came after her and eventually forced her to pay, but she was assured that others would be held to the same standard. “I feel that people who are doing it legitimately and getting permits are being punished while people who are doing this illegally are getting away with it,” she said.
Given her experience, Habib said she doesn’t think anyone should be granted an amnesty. She thinks the city should crack down now. Area resident Martha Marini, who sees cars parking on lawns and homes without any grass, said she would like to see the situation resolved. She doesn’t want to see her neighbours get hit with fines though.
“I don’t blame the residents because they didn’t even know that their front yard parking was illegal,” said Marini. “They probably purchased that property not knowing that it was illegal.” North York Community Council was expected to receive a report from transportation services on the proposal late last month.
