PARKING WARS
Residents around the stadium are preparing to defend their streets from soccer fans
Residents near the city’s new soccer stadium are limbering up to compete in Hamilton’s other Pan Am sport: event parking.
Between 10,000 and 18,000 spectators per game are expected for 32 soccer matches starting Saturday at CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Stadium. The former Ivor Wynne stadium, squeezed into a residential neighbourhood, was already starved for parking before police wrapped it in a Pan Am security cordon this week.
To avoid car-tastrophe, out-oftown spectators will be guided to park-and-shuttle areas f ar from the stadium, ticket holders can ride the bus for free and the city is restricting neighbourhood street parking for anyone without a permit.
A ticket for parking scofflaws on residential streets, however, is $26 — about what many homeowners appear to be charging Pan Am spectators for a “lawn parking” spot near the stadium, a hallowed football game-day tradition.
“Is that really going to stop anyone from taking my parking spot?” asked Rhonda Rogers, who said many of her neighbours depend on street parking. “There’s enough going on for us (area residents) without having to deal with a parking war.”
Other residents see profit in the parking blood sport judging by the number of driveways, street parking passes and even industrial lots advertised online.
One Kijiji ad announces “tailgaters welcome” at a Dunsmure Road business with 100 parking spots available at $20 a pop.
Another ad offers two “street level parking passes” in the resi- dential area around the stadium for $60. (A word to the wise: if those “passes” are city-issued permits, renting them to soccer fans is offside, warns the city — and will likely result in a confiscated pass.)
The prospect of losing scarce street parking to spectators prompted local residents to ask for beefed-up parking fines and proactive towing at a recent Pan Am community meeting organized by Coun. Matthew Green.
Unfortunately, it takes months — sometimes up to a year — for the city to adjust parking fines because the province must approve all changes, said bylaw director Marty Hazell.
That will eventually change under a planned “administrative penalty” system that will take parking infractions out of the provincial court system. But for now, “we can’t just add a zero to that fine,” he said.
The city does have the legal authority to tow illegally parked vehicles, but hardly ever does so immediately, Hazell said. That’s com-
mon municipal practice, he said, although Toronto recently started quickly towing illegally parked vehicles on congested arteries.
“Our practice is to ticket and track repeat offenders,” Hazell said. “Normally we would only tow if a vehicle is identified to us as abandoned.”
But Hazell added bylaw or police would promptly call in tow trucks if an illegally parked vehicle is blocking driveway access, impeding traffic or causing a safety issue.
Our practice is to ticket and track repeat offenders.
BYLAW DIRECTOR
MARTY HAZELL