Dear Editor:
What is happening in Elora??
I am referring to the new street parking implementation coming up in Elora, next January.
I am writing because, as usual, Centre Wellington Township doesn’t seem to care much about local residents’ input.
For as much as the pay parking won’t affect me and my family, as residents in Elora (because luckily we will be exempt), the parking zones are definitely affecting our everyday life in Elora.
The designation of some streets to have parking time limitations is absolutely ridiculous. Why are residential streets crossing Metcalfe and Geddes Streets, where there are a handful of parking spots anyway, set up be part of the “red zone” with three hours maximum parking, even for local residents?
An example is Church Street West, which is a residential street and has four street parking spots. I have family members residing on this street whose house doesn’t have space to park and I usually park on the street, in one of those four parking spots. When I visit my family, am I supposed to be limited to three-hour parking in the new year? Whoever decided this, it would be interesting to know what they were thinking (if they had a thought at all).
All this in the name of having “tourism paying for tourism.” But what about respecting the local taxpayers?
And what happens if someone parks for longer time in those three-hour limit zones? Considering the comments heard from many tourists, who don’t seem to care to pay the $45 parking tickets because it costs as much in Toronto for day parking, it’ll be “interesting” to see how our township will deal with that.
Since township doesn’t seem to care about hearing input, here is mine: make sure the local residents are actually taken into consideration when making this type of decision!
Also, since people at the township seem to take inspiration from Toronto when making these plans, if they really want to have tourists not parking in some areas all day, they should increase the fine to make sure people will think twice about leaving their car longer than they should (or have the cars towed away)! Respectfully disappointed (again).
Denis Fontana,
Elora