Don’t park cars during snowstorms, Hamilton councillors say

Snowstorms and parked cars don’t mix well.

That’s why Hamilton city councillors are asking residents to move their cars onto driveways during blizzards.

Following generous dumps starting on Family Day, plows had trouble clearing snow from streets or courts narrowed by cars on both sides.

“First and foremost, please get cars off the roads,” Coun. Maria Pearson said Wednesday.

Newer residential developments tend to “squeeze” more onto lots, resulting in smaller driveways for multi-car households, Dan McKinnon, general manager of public works, told councillors. “It’s going to continue to be a challenge.”

But residents in Ward 5 who have driveways with room for more than one car have “no excuse” for parking on the street during snowstorms, Coun. Chad Collins said.

Collins said he understands people are at home during the pandemic and some areas have a parking “crunch.”

But he asked why staff haven’t enforced a 12-hour limit for street parking with some cars static for weeks in his east-endStoney Creek ward.

Amid the pandemic, staff have

“definitely relaxed” the 12-hour limit, but that regulation doesn’t necessarily clear the way for plows, James Buffett, manager of parking enforcement and school safety, said in an interview.

“That car could move and another car could park there.”

During their meeting, councillors said they’d look for ways to make more room for plows on skinny streets.

“It’s not easy for these snowplow drivers. They do work miracles, but they can’t clear the snow to the sides of the road unless your car is missing,” Coun. Arlene VanderBeek of Dundas said.

If a “snow event” is declared in Burlington, cars parked on the street “may be subject to ticketing or towing,” the municipality notes on its website.

That would be “impossible” to replicate in Hamilton, where neighbourhoods, old and new, rely heavily on street parking, Buffett said.

The police chief can declare a “snow emergency” to bar parking along “snow routes,” which are on arterial and collector roads, he noted. That bylaw, however, sets a “fairly high bar,” McKinnon told councillors.

However, McKinnon, suggested there could be a solution in looking at alternating oneside-only street parking during winter, which already exists in some local neighbourhoods.

When asked, Buffett said a bylaw that targets certain neighbourhoods that have driveways could be created. That said, the public “appetite” for such a policy might make for a “very difficult conversation.”