Item - 2017.TE21.77

The Toronto and East York Community Council recommends that:

1.  City Council amend Chapter 918, Parking on Residential Front Yards and Boulevards, by inserting  a new §§ 918-7.2G as follows:

"G. The provisions of § 918-7.2 shall apply from March 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, inclusive.”

There are many locations in Ward 18 where residential boulevard parking, or 'front yard parking pads' exist.  Many of these front yard parking pads have pre-existed municipal restrictions for front yard parking.  In 2007, a moratorium was introduced in Ward 18, which meant that the City would no longer accept applications to build new front yard parking pads.  In addition, the ban meant that homeowners could no longer legalize front yard parking pads that were built prior to 2007.  Homeowners were never given notice of this pending moratorium.

Over the last several years, but more specifically within the last year, my office has received numerous calls from homeowners stating that their front yard parking pads were constructed prior to the 2007 moratorium and that they have no mechanism of legalizing them.  Many of these homeowners have been using their parking pads for decades.  Moreover, I have also heard from several homeowners, who feel it is unfair that that they pay a yearly licence fee to use their front yard parking pads, while some of their neighbours use their parking pads for free.

To date, the City has addressed the illegal use of front yard parking pads by having offending homeowners install barriers such as concrete curbstones, or planters.  This policy not only allows the homeowner to keep the 'blocked' paved area, but it also ends up pushing many of these homeowners to park on the street, which in turn adds pressure to permit parking areas, most of which are at, or close to full capacity.

This purpose of this motion is to rectify the ongoing concerns with the Ward 18 front yard parking pad moratorium by extending the 2012/2013 "Pilot Program".  The benefits of this program, like the previous one, is to allow homeowners to legalize their front yard parking pads, so long as they can prove that it was built prior to the introduction of the 2007 moratorium.  In addition, homeowners must agree to a series of provisions, which include, but are not limited to, the installation of permeable surfacing, allocation of additional green space etc.  In essence, these new front yard parking pads would be constructed in a way that would be more environmentally friendly by minimizing surface runoff, and adding soft landscaping.  The new front yard parking pads would also be more esthetically pleasing.