GOTL parking issue on-street and on condo lots: merchants

While merchants in Grimsby On The Lake have had a litany of issues with on-street parking, problems have also spanned condo properties as well.

Problems with customer parking being marked as “visitor” parking, spots spread throughout the residential area instead of a cohesive commercial area and disputes with condo board members have been pat of the issues, says La Maison Rose owner, Anne Turcic.

In communication with Town of Grimsby, Turcic was told – if approved guidelines were applied properly, there should not be any issues.

“What you are describing is a misuse of the visitor parking passes by the residents.  This is something that the condominium board should be addressing.  In this regard what I’ve seen other condominiums do is require all owners to register their vehicles with them as a means of preventing owners from parking in visitor spaces so that the visitor spaces are used for what they are intended,” noted Town of Grimsby planner Walter Basic in an email.

“I count the following parking spaces that are potentially available to the businesses on Winston Road:

• 21 visitor spaces within the mixed use condo blocks,

• 22 spaces within the common element directly behind these condo blocks and an additional 22 spaces further north on the common element

•  19 spaces assigned (owned) to each of the 19 commercial condo units

• 23 spaces on the north side of Winston Road

• Other public street parking on Hunter Road (17 spaces), Place Polonaise drive and the south side of Winston Road (23 spaces).

“I believe that, with the right cooperation amongst the condominium corporations, there is more than enough parking for the businesses particularly since peak hours for businesses generally do not correspond with peak hours for residential visitors.”