Summerside considering whether to keep winter overnight street parking ban

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. – Should Summerside keep its strict winter overnight street parking ban or should it look at softening those rules?

It’s a question discussed by council recently at its recent

Police Services Committee meeting. Opinions were mixed on the matter, but most councillors agreed it was worth taking a closer look at the situation and getting some options.

Coun. Cory Snow raised the topic, though other councillors said they have also received questions or complaints from residents about the blanket ban.

“For some reason, it has been determined over the years that the onus would be solely on the homeowners to not park on the street ever, from a specific period to another period of time,” said Snow.

“That being said, during that period of time there could be absolutely zero weather events, possibly large stretches where there is no need to have a parking ban.”

While Summerside prohibits all street parking from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., between Nov. 1 and April 30, some communities try to strike a balance between the need for parking and the ability to clean up after storms by issuing periodic bans based on the weather.

There was some concern around the council table that having a shifting set of rules would decrease storm cleanup efficiency because residents could get confused or miss the warnings.

“How do you police it,” asked Mayor Basil Stewart.

“If it’s going to snow tonight four centimetres, you can park, but if it’s five centimetres you can’t park. Who is going to measure the snow? I can just see it turning into a can of worms to control it.”

The committee agreed to send the idea to staff for further study and they will report back at a later date.