Residents want 36-hour limit revised
City Park residents Dennis and Patricia Dowd were shocked to return from vacation in March to find one of their vehicles missing.
They were even more shocked when they called the police to report the theft to find their vehicle had been ticketed and towed for violating the 36-hour limit for onstreet parking in Saskatoon.
The Dowds have lived in City Park for 45 years and park their vehicles on the street since they do not have a garage or driveway. It cost the couple $248.40 to retrieve their impounded vehicle and more than $400 to repair damage caused by the tow.
Ironically, the Dowds helped push for the bylaw to limit onstreet parking because of the scarcity of parking spots in their neighbourhood.
“It’s just so frustrating,” Patricia said in an interview Friday. “After living here for 40 years, why would we not think we could park in front of our house?”
Like many city bylaws, enforcement of the 36-hour parking limit is driven by complaints, but the Dowds remain suspicious. The ticket they were issued indicates their vehicle was “chalked” at 10:10 a.m. on March 14, about an hour after they left for the airport.
During a half-hour Friday morning, parking enforcement vehicles made two passes near the Dowds’ house. The couple say some of their neighbours have also had their vehicles impounded under the bylaw.
“We’ve been away extended periods before,” Dennis said. “We’ve been away for up to a month.”
The Dowds live on a street where the residential parking permit program allows them to park on the street for longer than the posted two-hour time limit.
They want the city to review the 36-hour limit to make some sort of accommodation for people like themselves who have no choice but to park vehicles on the street. Otherwise, to avoid tickets and towing, they are expected to ask neighbours or friends to move their vehicles every 36 hours while they are away.
Andrew Hildebrandt, the City of Saskatoon’s director of community standards, said the 36-hour limit is intended to accommodate residents. But it also aims to ensure the city has access should the need arise for emergency repair work, like a ruptured water main.
The Dowds said they left the keys to both of their vehicles with a neighbour in case they had to be moved for emergency repair work.
Dennis Dowd appeared before city council’s transportation committee in August to lobby for a review of the bylaw. That committee was told by acting general manager of transportation and utilities Angela Gardiner the city is reviewing the 36-hour limit with a report expected this fall.
Patricia pointed out Friday the bylaw appears to contradict the city’s efforts to encourage more people to take the bus, walk or ride their bikes by requiring them to keep moving their motor vehicles.
The number of tickets for 36hour violations has accounted for less than one per cent of total tickets issued the last two years and is on track for a similar result this year. So far in 2017, the city has issued 753 tickets, compared to 942 in 2016 and 923 in 2015.
The limit has been set at 36 hours since 1997, when it was lowered from 48 hours.