The city is hitting the pause button when it comes to enforcing portions of the city driveway bylaw that has seen some homeowners fined hundreds of dollars for having driveways sometimes inches too wide.
A compromise that was reached at city council Monday night will see an immediate halt to any enforcement as staff comes up with a new process that will allow individual streets apply for a further exemption from enforcement.
If that exemption is then granted, that neighbourhood or street would then be safe from prosecution until the city finishes a comprehensive city-wide bylaw review in roughly three years.
If a street or neighbourhood doesn’t apply for further exemption under that new process, residences in violation of the bylaw will once again be open to prosecution.
Council has no control about tickets already issued, council was told by city legal staff Monday.
The compromise would appear to ease concerns some councillors had about a city-wide suspension of the driveway bylaw for several years..
They felt that while a city-wide suspension of enforcement might address a problem in some Guelph neighbourhoods, it might also create a problem in other parts of the city.
A motion by Ward 1 councillor Dan GIbson for a city-wide suspension of enforcement of elements of the bylaw until that comprehensive bylaw review was narrowly defeated.
The staff-proposed compromise was then eventually approved.
Gibson’s city-wide motion was defeated by a 6-6 vote, with councillor Andy Van Hellemond (who Gibson said supported his motion) absent from Monday’s meeting.
(Voting for: Christine Billings, Gibson, Cam Guthrie, James Gordon, Mark MacKinnon, Mike Salisbury; against: June Hofland, Phil Allt, Bob Bell, Cathy Downer, Karl Wettstein and Leanne Piper).
Downer said she couldn’t support Gibson’s motion because it was”taking a sledgehammer for a problem that only exists on a few streets in the city.”
Downer said Gibson’s motion also created concerns and potential issues for other homeowners in other parts of the city.
“Out of the thousands of streets in the city, this probably hits 30 to 50 of them,” Downer said.
MacKinnon disagreed, saying there was “zero risk and zero harm” in suspending enforcement of the bylaw.
“It doesn’t create a problem for anyone else,” MacKinnon said.
Gordon said he didn’t like the idea of suspending enforcement of a bylaw, but he disliked even more the stories he was hearing from residents adversely affected by the current situation.
People are getting tickets in excess of $500 for having a driveway just a few inches too wide.
“I think we have failed these residents,” Gordon said.
Seven delegates spoke on the matter.
“It’s not just my street … It’s happening all over the city,” said Jennifer Hesch.
“It’s causing congestion on our street because people are being forced to park vehicles on the street instead of their own property, which is ridiculous.”
Sameer Al-Abdul-Wahid said his east Guelph street is down to one shared lane because of the amount of cars being forced to park on-street due to the bylaw.
“It feels like we’re being attacked by the city,” Al-Abdul-Wahid said of the rash of summonses issued for driveways being too wide.
Anthony Lewis of Couling Crescent is headed to court for parking 12 inches onto a paved section he built beside his driveway several years ago.
There are currently 78 “open investigations” of driveway bylaw violations that are in the system, staff told council.
