Hall Monitor: Recreational Parking

Kingston City Council held meeting number 24-2019 (Agenda) on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. One of their shortest meetings yet, most of the evening passed with minimal discussion, save for an item about changes to residential parking for recreational vehicles.

KEY TOPICS

With no delegations, briefings or presentations during the meeting, Council set directly to work on reports, with the notable item being a changes to the Official Plan and the zoning bylaws to enable residential parking changes. The proposal would enable residents to park recreational vehicles, trailers, all-terrain vehicles and boats in their driveways from April 1 through October 31. This change would remove the 72-hour exemption these types of vehicles currently receive. Also included with these changes were changes in how the city handles and discusses front yard parking for multiple vehicles.

There was discussion about the differences in parking in the rural area versus the urban area, as well as the suburban neighbourhoods compared to the more densely-built downtown neighbourhoods. Staff commented, too, that the province is currently actively encouraging municipalities to allow secondary suites and could also be making changes to allow tertiary suites (third units), and changes to allow for more parking would be needed to enable these types of units.

Following some separation of clauses to attempt to defeat the proposals in the downtown areas, the changes did carry. The official plan will be updated accordingly to allow for the parking of recreational vehicles in driveways during the aforementioned period of time.

ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION

In addition to parking changes, council enabled a license agreement to bring Boys and Girls Club services to the INVISTA Centre for up to 15 hours weekly beginning in January, approved the agreements to work with the federal government on the $20.2 million in funding announced for disaster mitigation, and approved a brownfield study for a portion of the former Bailey Broom Factory property.

There will be meetings of the Administrative Policy, Planning, Environment, Infrastructure and Transportation Policies and the Arts Advisory committees, among others, before Council next meets on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019 at 7 p.m.

Born and raised in Kingston, Tommy Vallier bleeds limestone. An avid council watcher since 2004, he first began reporting on municipal affairs in 2011, helping to modernize meetings and make them more accessible through social media and live video. When he isn’t focused on City Hall, he’s an avid gamer, theatre supporter, and Disney fan.